


Roommates in Disguise

by N1t3sh4d3, Rueitae



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action & Romance, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Angst and Humor, Collaboration, Comic Book Level Violence, Companionable Snark, Domestic Fluff, Double Life, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Explosions, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Galra are still the bad guys, Humor, Kidnapping, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-10 06:58:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 47,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19901668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N1t3sh4d3/pseuds/N1t3sh4d3, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rueitae/pseuds/Rueitae
Summary: Lance makes a hasty decision that lands him in the clutches of the Green Starling, one of the city’s most notorious super villains. Thankfully she doesn’t seem to know he’s actually her nemesis, the superhero Icebound. His captivity puts him in contact with Katie, a fellow college student. Concerned she may be targeted again, Lance befriends Katie. He doesn’t expect to end up moving in with her.Katie will do anything to find her family, that includes becoming a super villain to expose a Galra Corporation that has the city wrapped around its metaphorical finger. When Lance literally falls at her feet, claiming to be friends with Icebound, she jumps at the chance to find the connection between Galra Corp and the sudden appearance of super heroes two years ago, not long after her family went missing...Neither anticipate a friendship and a blossoming romance.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Odd chapters will be Lance POV and even chapters will be Pidge POV, myself and Nightshade respectively. We hope you enjoy!
> 
> A very big thank you to our beta [DoughnutsForever](https://whyamistillhungry.tumblr.com/)! You helped us polish this up and kept our heads together!
> 
> Look at the amazing *movie poster* inspired art that was made for this by [Scarlet Soul](https://mybluelionlancylance.tumblr.com/post/186452499757/this-is-art-for-the-plance-mini-bang/)! We are so grateful for your work, it's utterly gorgeous

Lance wondered if heroes in comic books ever had bad days like this.

Not for the first time that day, or even week, Lance cursed his horrible luck. Dust gathered on his dress shoes as he ran desperately along the upended street. He loosened his tie for easier breathing, disoriented and light headed as he crashed into a mound of concrete that used to be part of the road.

The meeting with his boss hadn’t gone well - he was epically failing his internship, though that was no surprise considering his absences and late assignments. There was no way they’d hire him when he graduated.

If he lived to graduate in the first place.

Well, at least he could try to save some people from today’s villainous rampage.

Pausing for a moment's rest against the wall of concrete and pavement, he closed his eyes to construct peace and quiet as streams of shrieking bystanders raced by in the opposite direction of his travel, towards the center of chaos. There was no opportunity for him to hide and transform into his hero persona. Icebound would be able to traverse this trashed landscape with no problem, but he couldn’t give away his secret identity. His enemies wouldn’t give him any peace.

Enemies he never would have had, had he not been delivering lunch (with ice cream dessert, oh does he remember that ice cream well - all that awful _stickiness!_ ) to the Galra Corp building when the lab exploded. So of _course_ he had ice powers.

It wasn’t as easy as comic books made it out to be. Lance extended a wave of sympathy towards Clark Kent - but at least _he_ had convenient telephone booths to work with. Lance liked to see what he would do in the age of cell phones.

A growing chorus of panicked screams rang out in the near distance.

With a deep breath, determination set in. He had to do something, or innocent people would get hurt.

He heaved, pushing himself up and over a piece of raised road, making Lance grateful for all those years of gym class. He rolled over his back before sitting up on his knees, assessing the situation.

A group of students from his university were huddled together, surrounded by strings of green-colored energy that emitted from three black poles embedded in the pavement.

His heart dropped into his throat. They were trapped, and the design and coloring of the contraption told him _exactly_ who was behind it.

A black spire impaled the ground next to him - it may have well struck through his heart with the way it skipped a beat. He screeched as it missed his arm by a hair’s breadth, forcing him to blunder backward. Elbows scraped against the concrete and he hissed in pain, though it was a small price to pay to avoid a head injury. 

Dread grew by the tick, perspiration trickling down his temple as he craned his neck upwards. Towering above him, the cause of the destruction sat atop her prized machine in a half-circle cockpit surrounded on all sides by control panels, the tall legs lifting her a full story above ground level.

“Well, what do we have here?” the Green Starling, or Pidge as he’d grown to know her, mused. Lance scooted backward but another leg of her octopod caught a piece of his nice slacks with precision and purpose, pinning him to the spot. “Not really who I was expecting to be running _into_ danger.”

This was not the most ideal way to face one of the city’s most dangerous villains, Lance fretted. He wasn’t in costume, but he had to do whatever he could.

Frostbite formed on his fingertips despite his racing heart. His chilly core begged for release to encase his body and unleash his full power. He had some access to his powers while not in disguise, but not enough to defeat the imposing sight before him. Worse, she’d learn his identity and Lance knew she’d take full advantage of it. Her hacking prowess had landed him in hot water before, mostly in the form of turning machinery against him; she’d find his name and address before he could get home.

He curled in his cold fingers, hiding them on an otherwise warm and sunny day. “Let them go,” he pleaded, “they’re innocent!” He still had his words. She’d listened to him before - well, Icebound anyway - and left civilians alone. Lance was convinced she had a good heart. She just needed a reminder of it from time to time.

Pidge rested her elbows on the machine’s console, chin sagging into her palm. The slightest of amused smiles teased on her lips and Lance swore there was a sparkle in her eye. “You’re playing hero - that’s cute.”

“Someone has to,” he retorted, perhaps a bit too quickly, though his heart pounded and he swallowed hard. “What are you even after?”

Pidge rolled her eyes, squashing his hope she’d listen to him. “I needed Icebound’s surrender yesterday,” she said. “I figured surely he’d come out with a mess like this. So unless you know where he is, I don’t have any use for you.”

Lance gulped. Oh if she only knew.

Though, a sense of pride swelled in his heart that she’d focus on _his_ meddling verses the other two heroes in the city. Not that they were a common sight and Lance begrudged the idea that, despite how irritating Flame-o Brain-o always managed to be, he wouldn’t mind a little help with hero work now and then to catch up with his civilian life. 

The attention to him specifically boosted his confidence and a smug grin tugged up the side of his face. Maybe he could use this to his advantage.

“It’s your lucky day then!” Lance said cockily, despite being pinned down by a giant robot. “Why hold a bunch of people hostage, when you can just take Icebound’s best friend?”

Pidge raised a critical eyebrow. “You?” she questioned, pointing a lazy finger in his direction.

“Yes, me,” Lance responded, momentarily annoyed. Why _wouldn’t_ he be a hero’s best friend if he wasn’t already the hero? He was an awesome friend!

But a shallow argument wasn’t going to free the civilians. Lance closed his eyes and took a calming breath. He needed to swallow his pride and make her take this deal. “Take me hostage and let the others go,” he pleaded as sincerely as he could muster. “It’ll be just as effective, and you’ll only have one body to worry about.” He had no idea how he was going to free himself later, but as long as the students were safe, it was a risk worth taking.

After a long moment of considering, Pidge pulled down definitively on a lever. Two thick cables snaked down from either side of the machine. Lance fought his instinct to retaliate as they wrapped under his arms and around his chest, pulling him into the air helplessly. He gripped the coils for some sense of security as he was hoisted to the villain’s eye level.

Without prompting, she released the students. They scattered and scrambled in all directions. Lance breathed a sigh of relief.

“For your own sake, I hope you’re telling the truth,” Pidge said ominously as she turned her vehicle and moved towards the suburbs. “Because if Icebound doesn’t show up for you, I have plenty of use for you in my lab.”

“You actually have a secret lab?” Lance perked up, his voice rising steadily in alarm. The methodical movement of the machine was making his stomach twist about. each step it took jiggled him about in the smooth coils and it felt like he could slip out if he doesn’t hang on with all he had, legs dangling uselessly a story above the ground.

He forced a laugh that didn’t feel entirely humorous, keeping a weather eye on how far away he was from the ground. “I never pegged you for being the ultimate villain stereotype.”

Pidge raised an eyebrow at him.“We only just met and I’ve done nothing _but_ hit the super villain checklist.”

Oh right. He couldn’t mention any of their past meetings in costume. He laughed nervously. “Icebound tells me about you all the time. He says you’re the smartest and most creative bad guy he knows.” Add a wink to the compliment, wiggle the raised eyebrow - be irresistible.

“Flattery won’t save you from my death ray if you’re lying.” Her threat was so monotone that it sent a chill up his spine faster than ever. So much for flirting his way out of this.

Their ride took an extra heavy stomp and he slipped down, scrambling to catch hold of any part of the coils that might offer more grip. His belly button was left exposed, shirt riding up his stomach.

Maybe, if he’s lucky, one of the other two heroes would find him _before_ he’s forced to reveal his identity to Pidge.

Urgh. Getting saved by Flame-dude would _suck_. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge is busy causing havoc when a strange guy, claiming to be her nemesis' best friend shows up. Intent on learning as much as she can, Pidge takes Lance hostage only to be presented with an even more fascinating puzzle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, Nightshade here. This is my chapter from Pidge's POV and I hope you enjoy this chapter. As always you can find me on [Tumblr](https://fallen-angel-nightshade.tumblr.com) and Rueitae at her [Tumblr](https:/rueitae.tumblr.com).
> 
> A million thanks to our beta [DoughnutsForever](https://whyamistillhungry.tumblr.com) as well as the amazing art from [Scarlet Soul](https://mybluelionlancylance.tumblr.com/post/186452499757/this-is-art-for-the-plance-mini-bang/)

Pidge surveyed the damage as her octobot... she  _ really _ needed to come up with a better name for it… strode across the street. Screams of “Run! It’s the Green Starling!” made her feel even more like the supervillain she was trying to be. Smirking, she took out part of the street in front of a bunch of jerks from her Calc III class. They had always harassed her for being the youngest in the class and doing better than them. Ignoring the screeches, she looked around impatiently. “Where is he?” she muttered beginning to get annoyed, “Stupid Ice Freak.” Icebound was usually here by now and she preferred to deal with him rather than the police. Instead, another guy ran up. 

Curious, she cocked her head and sent one of the mechanical arms down. She tried to hide a growing smile at his dramatics. This was far more entertaining than she thought humoring him would be, especially with his claim of being Icebound’s best friend, and his willingness to give himself up as a hostage. 

Pidge had to admit she was flattered to find that Icebound talked about her so much, but she kept her face neutral. “Flattery won’t save you from my death ray if you’re lying.”

He pouted at her but she quickly tapped a few buttons on her center console and a small microbot ran out of the console, skittered up his shirt sleeve to his neck where it injected a mild tranquilizer. He slapped at it as if it were a mosquito before sagging unconscious as it took effect.

~~~~~

Once back in her lair she tossed him, rather unceremoniously, in a chair.

He came to quicker than she was expecting, which sort of impressive. As he looked around groggily, she busied herself at her workbench keeping a discreet but careful eye on him.

“Okay, wow! You really  _ do _ have a secret lair. Are you going to run tests on me?  _ Have _ you run tests on me?”

The amount of horrified concern in his voice was delicious. Deciding to mess with him some more she turned to face him, tapping a modified screwdriver against her cheek. “Oh calm down. I told you I'd only do that if Icebound doesn’t show. Now, what can you tell me about that human popsicle?"

He considered her for a few moments, which again intrigued her. Why was he hesitating so much? Most people would be eager to spill their guts at this point. Then again, most people would be hysterics by now. He was tied tightly to a chair with a menacing looking ray gun pointed at him. Never mind the fact the gun wasn't done, he didn't need to know that.

“Well, what do you want to know? I mean, I can tell you some stuff, but there's only so much I know.”

She hadn’t been expecting that question. “How did he get his powers?” That had been bothering her for quite a while and it was a good start.

“He... He was in an accident. It was... he's sorta... vague about it. You know, not the sort of thing he likes to get into. What about you?” The strange boy asked, waggling his eyebrows at her, “What made you decide to become a super villain? I mean, does it really pay that well?

She couldn't suppress the little bark of laughter that escaped her. “Oh yeah, it's the best paying job ever!” she snarked at him. “As for  _ why _ I became a supervillain, that's none of your business.”

“Well, there's only so much I know about Icebound’s personal life, and it's not like I'll tell anyone else your secrets. Besides, I'm interested in what can make such an intelligent girl like you turn to a life of crime.”

She stopped what she was working on and looked around cautiously. “What makes you say that?”

He shrugged minutely, the bindings only allowing him to move very little. “I mean it's obvious! You built all this stuff, right? It's not like you can find any of it at the local store. And it doesn't look like you've got a partner. So that makes it all your work.”

She squinted at him for a moment. He was a far more observant than she realized. This could be bad. “Who are you? What's your name? And where is that Popsicle Breath?”

“Take it easy. I'm not trying to cause problems! Just pointing out stuff that seems kind of obvious.” Intriguing, he was trying to placate her and still not fearful. She kept the suspicious expression in place to see what else he would reveal. “I'm nobody special, just a college journalism student. I work at the local paper. It's not as much fun as it sounds, but it's something.” Then his eyes brightened a bit as he smiled, in what she thought was his attempt to be charming. “The names Lance. Lance McClain.” This time she didn't stop the laugh that burst out of her. “What's so funny? I was being really smooth!”

“Hahahaha! Yeah right! You're about as smooth as sandpaper. That was the WORST attempt at a ‘smolder’ I’ve ever seen!”

He bristled slightly, “Yeah, well, no one can tell what you look like underneath all that crazy get up. I bet you're some sort of hideous… thing. Ugh… never mind.” He looked away, sulking for a few moments, then with a deep sigh he turned back to her, “So... what made you decide to impersonate Doc Ock?”

She threw her tools down and whirled on him in aggravation “I did not attempt to imitate him! It's just the safest way to do things. You have the most stability and it’s easier to manipulate things with those arms! It's a great idea! Do I really look like... that?” 

Lance tried not to flinch, but he was taken aback. “I mean, you go by Green Starling. I sorta thought you'd have some sort of... flight powers? And the suit doesn't help.”

“Flight powers, huh?” She considered that statement for a moment, possibilities racing through her mind, then nodded. “That's something I can work with.”

Lance looked mortified at the thought. “That... that... that wasn't a suggestion!” he spluttered.

She grinned wickedly at him, as she pulled up the goggles of her hood, her eyes crinkling with mirth. “It wasn't? It certainly seems like a wonderful suggestion!”

He scowled, “At least you wouldn’t look like a Spider-man ripoff.”

This was very interesting. Not many people could handle bantering with her, let alone being this composed under this amount of pressure. It almost bothered her. She glanced at the clock expectantly. Where in the world was Icebound?

Pidge noted how he paled and she watched smugly as realization crashed over him. She knew that he was trying to distract her. It was always a good tactic to remind people she knew what was going on.

He gulped visibly and started to shake slightly. “Well, how's he supposed to know where I am? I don't have any sort of tracking device on me! And no one knows where your secret lair is.”

She frowned, he had a valid point. If he had a tracking device on, Icebound would have been here by now. Overall, Lance seemed like a pretty nice guy. The one time he attempted to insult her, he stopped before it got too far. Or he really was that bad at insults.

“How did you meet the Ice Freak?”

Lance looked startled, then he scrambled to answer. “Our families are really close. Yeah! We. We grew up together! Ha ha ha ha. He's like a brother to me.”

Pidge gauged him for a moment. There was so much in those comments that spoke of lies, but only partial ones, there were major details he was purposely leaving out. “So I take it that means you two spend a lot of time together?”

Lance looked markedly more uncomfortable. “Well, you know how college goes? You get busy. Classes, you know? We haven't seen much of each other since school started. We were talking about meeting up later tonight. He was curious about how my job interview was going to go.” Lance looked oddly sad at the idea.

“Did you not want to meet up?”

“What? No! I mean... it’d be great and all. Not many people care... Ahm. Anyway, he won’t really notice I’m gone since we never cemented the plans.”

Pidge squinted again thoughtfully. From how sad he looked and the obvious way he was fighting back tears, there  _ weren’t _ a lot of people that cared. On one hand, it made him the perfect hostage. It was late Thursday and not many teachers bothered with Friday classes. The only possible people who would miss him would be the newspaper staff, but she knew how they were. Disorganized was too kind of a word. 

On the other hand, a small part of her hurt to see him this miserable. He had raised some valid points about that dumb Ice Cube not knowing where he was. He had kept up with her in conversation, which was no small feat. The way he was so calm, the connection to Icebound, his loneliness, his selflessness. He was a fascinating riddle to her. An idea slowly formed. How could she pull this off?

Pidge stretched and grunted loudly, “That reminds me, I need to eat. If you’re lucky, I’ll bring you something. But it depends on how well you behave.”

Instead of the quirky reply she was expecting, he merely murmured, “Yeah. Okay.” 

This was not going to work. She needed to get closer to him, so she could find out more about Icebound. She sauntered over to the chair, pretending to check how tight the knots were. She realized he hadn’t even tried to escape. Another interesting tidbit. The only indication her knots were holding was when he shrugged earlier, but when he did, they had worked themselves slightly loose. Good enough. Now it was up to him.

She jostled the chair, then bent over his shoulder, to whisper in his ear. “You make a great hostage. I guess I don’t even have to worry about you trying to escape. I’ll bring you back something... sweet.”

He started slightly when she began to speak, but other than that gave no indication he was interested. Fascinating. She strolled over to the stairs and turned to toss him a cheeky smile while blowing him a little kiss. “Sit tight Lance. I’ll be back soon.” 

Once she got to the top of the stairs she stopped and listened. Sure enough, there were sounds of Lance trying to get out of the ropes. She slipped into her room and took off her suit. He would be gone in a few minutes, time to relax and plan.  _ Time to transform! _ she snickered to herself, as she threw on her favorite dress and pulled a headband on. 

She decided food was definitely a good idea. As she rounded the corner into the kitchen she barreled right into Lance. Shocked she spluttered, “Wh- What are you doing here?”

Lance stared at her for a moment. Pidge held her breath. If he knew it was her, this could be really bad. Then he shook himself and whispered urgently, “Trying to escape. I can’t believe she took another hostage! Look, my name is Lance and you are in a great deal of danger. You should come with me.”

Pidge gaped at him. Before she could stop her stupid mouth, she blurted out, “That’s ridiculous! It’s MY house!”

Lance narrowed his eyes at her for a moment. Damn it! She really messed up. “This is your house? What the hell is Green Starling doing here? Unless…” Pidge froze. This was it. He figured it out. She was busted. “Did you know that Green Starling is here?”

Pidge couldn't believe her luck, “Uhhhh. Yeah. I mean, yeah. She barged in a few months ago and took over. She threatened to kill me! It was after she overheard me talk to some friends about my new lab-”

“Lab?”

“Umm. Yeah. For my... robots! I’m in the Robotics Engineering program over at Arus.”

Lance’s eyes widened. “Cool! So you’re like a real mad scientist, huh?” Pidge nearly choked on the lump in her throat, but Lance only grabbed her hand and smiled down at her. “C’mon. Let’s get somewhere safer and you can tell me all about it!” 

Pidge smiled at him, “Only if you meet me for dinner. If not, I may have to send a robot to blow you up.”

Lance just grinned, “Look, I’ve already been almost blown up today. How about we start with coffee? I never did get your name.”

“Sounds great. My name’s Katie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let us know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Katie talk over a cup of coffee, and decide where to go from here.

Lance tried to stop his hands from shaking as he walked carefully across the cafe. Katie expected coffee and he doesn’t want to spill the cups in his hands, particularly on him - the steam from her cup was enough to nauseate him, an unfortunate downside to having ice powers. 

This latest ordeal was over, but the fearful knot in his stomach was still there. Pidge could have done much worse to him if he hadn’t escaped. If she’d activated that death ray… he would have transformed on instinct.

He wasn’t used to mixing his hero life with his regular life for good reason. The costume was meant to separate the two. Now Pidge was interested in both. He couldn’t hide no matter what persona he took. At this rate, what were the odds she found out anyway? Would it make any difference at this point if she knew?

It weighed on him more than he’d like. 

He took a deep breath and grit his teeth. It wasn’t as if he could do anything about it right now, he’d have to make do when the time came. For now, his priority was making sure that Katie was okay. He’d spent less than an hour with Pidge, he couldn’t imagine what Katie must have gone through after months of captivity. 

So he forced the thoughts to the back of his mind and flashed a bright smile her way as he approached the table for two. 

“One mocha latte for the lady,” he said as he carefully placed the porcelain cup in front of her. He slid into the seat across from her and set his own plastic cup down. “And an iced caramel macchiato for me.” He paused, gauging her reaction. 

She’s staring at him, as if trying to analyze his very being. 

Science majors were strange. 

“Everything okay?” he asked sincerely, fingers drumming around the cup nervously. He usually wasn’t around post-rescue and hadn’t the slightest idea how to proceed from here. Still, offering condolences and giving her an opportunity to talk about it all surely was the right thing to do. “It had to have been pretty traumatic to be a prisoner in your own house.”

Her nose wrinkled and brows narrowed into a distinctly confused expression before her eyes widen. “Oh. OH. Haha,” she laughed and her thumb rubs the handle of her cup. “I’m fine. Totally fine, I promise!” 

Lance was not convinced. 

“Look, the police are on their way to your place and they’ll find Green Starling - Pidge - whatever she wants to call herself.” He set his hand on the table between them, symbolically lending a hand. “The search might take a few days, but I promise you’re going to be safe okay?” 

He was going to make sure of it.  _ This _ is why he became a hero, so he could save others... and maybe, in some small way, pay penance for what happened to his family.

Katie brought the cup to her mouth and took an awkwardly long sip. Lance sucked on the straw, treating himself to several smaller sips. He grimaced. He couldn’t stand hot drinks now, but he remembered even before the accident he couldn’t drink coffee  _ that _ fast. It had to be burning her tongue. 

She finally set it down, her gaze firmly on the contents of the cup. “I’m not fragile. I’m anxious to get my lab back. I have final projects to get done.”

Lance frowned. “I’m sure your professors will understand. You’ve been missing for three months and -”

“I’ve still been keeping up with my classes. Online,” she added quickly. 

“Oh okay,” Lance conceded, slumping further back into his seat. That had been… nice of Pidge. His worry refused to fade though. “Is there… anything I can do for you?” He flashed a charming smile. “Besides that dinner?”

“Dinner sounds great. You’re cooking?” Katie asked point blank. 

Lance’s jaw dropped, mouth flapping uselessly in surprise at her assumption. “I was thinking more along the lines of a restaurant,” he recovered. “It would be way better than my cooking, I promise.”

He couldn’t help but feel awful when the lines of Katie’s mouth dropped.  _ Smooth, Lance, real smooth, _ he thought in disdain. And here he thought he was doing the gentlemanly thing. He noted in the back of his mind that Katie probably preferred quiet nights at home. 

As nice as that sounded, he was not ready to take a girl home on a date. 

Home. Oh. 

“Um… do you have any relatives you can stay with? You know, until the police make sure the Green Starling isn’t coming back to your house?”

An anguished expression crossed Katie’s face before she looked pointedly away from him. “No! I mean,” she sighed in resignation. “That’s my family’s home. They’ve been missing. I don’t have anyone else I can stay with.”

She stared at him expectantly, leaning into the table. “Would you… mind if I stayed with you for a bit?”

Lance swore his heart stopped and he forced himself to give her an uneasy smile. He didn’t have a roommate due to his hero routine and no excuse since they were both students. 

_ Nothing romantic needs to come of this _ , he thought desperately. This was part of his hero duty. He could do this. 

“I did say  _ anything _ ,” Lance finally said, pointing to himself. “If it makes you feel safe, consider my place your place,” he finished, gesturing a hand towards her.

He hadn’t expected his answer to bring sheer delight on Katie’s face. 

Lance allowed himself a small smile, heart bubbling just warmly enough that it doesn’t make him queasy. Maybe he  _ was  _ doing the right thing. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a surprising turn of luck, Pidge is looking a the best possible solution to learn all about Lance, and Icebound. She just needs to adjust the plan slightly.

Pidge couldn’t believe her luck! Lance was letting her stay with him! The only wrench in the plans was the police combing her place. Then again, it wouldn’t be too hard to hack the database and remove the evidence. Or she could just claim Green Starling made her work on the projects in case something like this happened. Everyone knew there were gloves with her suit. Oh no!! The suit was in her room! It wouldn’t take a genius to realize who she was. 

She quickly jumped up. At Lance’s startled expression she just smiled a bit and muttered something about going to the bathroom. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do. Checking the mini computer that she had incorporated into her bracelet, she looked up recent dispatches and saw that none were at her house yet. Pulling up a small app that she had made to help on-the-fly hacking, she broke into their system rather quickly. Scanning through the system she noticed Lance’s call was logged, but other emergencies had taken precedence. There was a serious wreck involving at least three cars on a major road, a robbery in progress and the mess she caused earlier was still snarling traffic. This was good. 

She decided deleting his call would instantly arouse suspicion since she heard him talking to the dispatcher. She marked the stop as done, with inconclusive findings, by the team that had gone to the car accident. It was close enough to her house and soon enough after the call, that it would look like they finished at her house and then had to leave for the accident. After checking her reflection, to make sure her nerves weren’t showing, she headed back to the table.

“Sorry about that.”

“No, it’s okay! Are you alright?”

“Oh yeah. Just nerves. I guess today shook me up worse than I had thought. Now that I’m finally sitting down, it all sorta hit me.” Pidge realized she wasn’t really lying either. Her hands started to shake as she held her cup.

Lance smiled gently, “How about we start walking over to the store? I don’t think I have anything that will fit you and I doubt you will want to stay in that for several days.”

Pidge looked down startled. She had managed to spill the coffee on the side of her dress. Then she noticed the small puddle next to her cup. She must have jostled it when she jumped up. Groaning, she nodded, “Yeah, I think another set of pajamas and two more outfits would probably be a good idea. Do you mind if I use your washer?”

Lance shook his head, “Nah, that’s fine. We can head to the laundromat after. Then dinner?”

Pidge gaped at him for a moment. “Laundromat? You don’t have a washer and dryer?”

Lance looked mildly embarrassed, “Um… no. Well, hehe. I, uh, I guess my place isn’t the greatest. Um… Let’s, let’s get those outfits for you!”

She was a bit surprised at his response, so she jogged a bit to keep to catch up. “Do you live at the dorms?” She knew the dorms were a bit nuts, the thought of having to deal with them made her heart sink. Too many people around.

“No no. It’s not that. I have my own apartment. It’s just... not in the best neighborhood. It’s cheap and close to the school though.” 

Pidge nodded. The least she could do was reserve judgment, not that she had much room to complain, he was the one letting her stay there. They turned into the store and she decided to get this stupid shopping trip over with as soon as possible. She really didn’t need anything new, but any attempt at trying to get back to her place right now would be shot down in record time. 

After being in the store for fifteen minutes she was starting to get frustrated. She didn’t like anything, it was all way too cute or stupid. She found a pair of shorts that looked promising but at this point, she was itching to just blow the whole place up and hide at home, not caring if it gave her identity away. This was torture! Did Lance suspect her? Was this his way of getting her to talk? Just then Lance surprised her by dumping several outfits into her arms. 

“You look like my sister gets when nothing is fitting right or she can’t find anything she likes. She usually likes stuff like this, so I figured it might be the same for you? I think they have a dressing room open.”

Pidge sifted through the outfits and was pleasantly surprised. There were a number of simple, solid color shirts and some decent shorts. After finding the ones that fit she grabbed a few other essentials and attempted to find some pajamas. Her normal tank top and undies were  _ probably _ more than a little inappropriate. She suppressed a laugh at that idea as she started flipping through the different styles. She practically jumped out of her skin when Lance spoke, almost in her ear.

“This one is pretty cool.” 

She hadn’t noticed him at all until he spoke and that alarmed her. “Where the hell did you come from? Don’t sneak up on people like that!” 

“From my mother and I didn’t sneak up, you just weren’t paying attention.”

Suppressing a growl of annoyance, she looked at what he was pointing to. It was a pair of dark blue pants and shirt with the constellations marked. She started to smile until she noticed the tag that read ‘Glow in the Dark’. Hurt and anger crashed over her. He was making fun of her? She turned to snap at him when she noticed he was staring at the label. 

Then he exclaimed, “They glow in the dark? I want a pair now too!”

At her incredulous look, he simply stuck his nose up at her, “What? You don’t think I can pull it off? I think I’d look FABULOUS.” he pulled one off the rack and held it up. “See?”

She finally gave into giggles. He seemed to relax some. “C’mon. Let’s get some dinner. I’m starving. If we get some take out, we can throw everything in the wash.”

She followed him to the register and then felt horrible. With the confusion of Lance still being there and the rush to leave she didn’t bring her purse. No money. No ID. No phone. This started to freak her out. Then she realized how stupid that was. Lance was best friends with Icebound. That popsicle breath might be aggravating, but he  _ was _ a hero. Nothing bad would happen to her.

They stopped by a Chinese restaurant that Lance swore had the best food in the area. She noticed they were definitely on the shabbier side of town. A few more blocks and they went up a flight of rickety stairs. Lance stopped in front of a door and tried to juggle everything as he dug his keys out. Rolling her eyes, Pidge took the extra bag with her clothes and tried to grab the bag with the food. 

Lance frowned playfully. “Nope, you already have my PJs! I’m not giving up my Szechuan beef without a fight!” He tried to hide a smile when she chuckled. “Well, here it is. Home sweet home. Let me just grab my laundry and detergent, then we can head down to the laundromat. No stealing my food!” He tossed over his shoulder as he dashed into the other room. 

She looked over the place. It was dingy, sparse but clean and had seen better days. There didn’t seem to be any bugs or rats, at least not yet. There was a worn out couch in front of a small CRT TV, that sat on a few milk crates. Several more milk crates were turned sideways and stacked to make a bookshelf. A folding table and two chairs were shoved in a corner. The small kitchen was clean, from what she could see. Lance came back and threw her bags on top of his laundry basket. He tossed her a long t-shirt and a pair of girl’s shorts. She looked at him in surprise. Did he have a girlfriend? There was no other evidence. He just pointed at the bathroom. 

“I know you wanted to throw your dress in too. Don’t worry, the shorts are clean. My sister left them.”

They made it around the corner to the all-night laundromat. As she removed all the tags she realized that they only had one load. 

“Looks like this won’t take too long!” She smiled.

Lance just smirked and handed her food. She started to eat as he loaded the rest of the machine. Then he sat on top of it and dug into his food.

After a few moments, she broke the silence. “Look, I _really_ appreciate everything you’re doing for me. I swear I will pay you back for everything as soon as I can get back to my house!” 

He just laughed. 

“It’s okay. I figure it’s the least I could do. I  _ did _ rush you out of the house really fast and you can’t go back for a while. Besides you were so rattled, it gave you time to calm down.”

She stared at him for a moment. How much sweeter could this guy be? She cleared her throat, “Uhh, yeah. I mean it was really harrowing. I guess I didn’t realize how bad it was. Tonight has been fun.” She looked at him with a smile, when it struck her. He had said no one cared anymore. But he had spoken of his sister with such fondness. What had happened? She cautiously asked, “Do you go shopping a lot with your sister?”

She watched as his face fell and anguish rippled across it before he looked down into the open take out container to hide his expression. He swallowed hard then tried to answer her with forced cheerfulness, “Oh yeah. I mean she hates it, but we try to go at least once a month.”

Pidge just looked thoughtful. It was another obvious lie. She let the silence stretch for a few more seconds and before she could say anything else Lance jumped up. 

“Hey, we forgot sodas! What’s your poison?”

“Dr. Pepper is fine. You don’t really have to though.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I ordered mine too hot so I need a drink anyway. The store’s right there, so just give me a few minutes.” and with that, he was out the door before she could react. 

Family was definitely a more sensitive subject than she thought. Interesting. It was making her even more curious about him.

He came back a few minutes later with the sodas, looking a bit more composed. He gently tossed the bottle to her. “Here you go!” Then he hopped back on the washer.

“Thanks. Um, sorry for prying. I just-”

“Nah, it’s fine. Just been a while. Anyway, what sort of stuff do you like to do? I usually watch TV or do homework.”

Dodging the subject. This really was taboo. Very interesting. Now she  _ REALLY  _ wanted to dig some more.

“Normally, I’d be working on my computer. Coding. I think I have all my homework done.”

He nodded distractedly. The sounds of an argument echoed through the street. They quickly switched the laundry as the argument escalated. Pidge was beginning to get nervous. 

“Should we…”

Sirens sounded outside and Pidge breathed a sigh of relief. Then the fight escalated even more. There were shouts about dropping guns, the sound of more fighting, a gunshot went off, a few loud grunts as bodies hit the ground. Then silence. 

She started to feel a little guilty. Is this how people felt when she was out? Maybe being more covert would be a better thing. There was no real need for the mech. It was a bit of a rush to see the fear on people’s faces, but feeling it herself? That was a new perspective. Was it worth it to terrorize everyone?

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s normal for this neighborhood.” With the reassurance on Lance’s face, she could only guess how fearful she looked. “Sounds like a drug deal gone bad and people know when to call the cops. When I was in the store the manager was already on the phone. I'm impressed that they get here so fast this time.” Lance glanced at the dryer, “This load is almost done. We should get upstairs as soon as it is and we can fold everything there. I didn’t realize how late it was.”

The flash of ambulance lights raced forward. Silence stretched between them as they unloaded the clothes. They slipped out quickly and headed back up to the apartment. After everything was folded and they took turns getting ready for bed. Lance had unraveled a sleeping bag on the couch. Pidge smiled gratefully. 

“Thanks. I’m beat!”

He looked at her in surprise. “What? No, I was going to sleep here. You’re a guest. You can take my bed. I just put on clean sheets.” She opened her mouth to argue and he held up his hand, “Nope. No arguing. Now it’s time for bed. We both had a long day.”

She nodded mutely and made her way into the room. She scanned the room. The bedroom furniture was nice and the bed looked really comfy. As she climbed in she noticed a few things. On the bedside table, there was a framed picture of a large, happy family. Half shoved into the table drawer, a piece of newspaper hung out. Carefully, she opened the drawer and slipped the paper out. She remembered the story, it was a terrible accident that happened about two years ago. A family in a van had slid on a patch of black ice and rolled off the embankment. It seemed the whole family had died. The picture matched the one in the frame. 

She slid the paper back in and laid down. No wonder he didn’t want to talk about family and had no one left who cared. The sounds of a violent fight erupted below them. One thing was certain, he deserved better than this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let us know what you think! Comments and kudos appreciated.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and Lance play video games and save the day together.

Lance had every intention of waking up early - but he was so comfortable.  
  
His stomach growled in delight as the scent of maple hit his nostrils. The sound of sizzling bacon and the humming of the kitchen fan reached his ears, completing the perfect background noise to doze in bed...   
  
Wait. His kitchen fan was _broken_ .   
  
Lance jumped up with alarm and yelled in surprise as his back hit the floor. The sleeping bag he’d slept in hung mockingly from his legs.   
  
“Are you okay?” Katie asked, peeking out from behind the partition between the kitchen and living room.   
  
It all came back to him.   
  
“Yeah, s-sorry,” he said, more embarrassed than anything. “Only thing hurt is my pride.”   
  
Katie nodded. “Good. Then you’ll be able to enjoy breakfast.” She popped back into the kitchen. “I’m almost done with the bacon, but help yourself to the eggs and toast.”   
  
Lance slowly made his way to the tiny table and gazed upon the feast. Saliva pooled up in his mouth at the sights and smells. Two plates with forks and glasses of orange juice were already arranged, filled with buttered toast, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns.   
  
Wait, when had he gone grocery shopping?   
  
“Where did you get all this? I know I didn’t have it in my fridge.”   
  
“Good news,” Katie responded, stirring into his only frying pan. “The police contacted me early this morning. I got to go back to the house and grab a few things. Breakfast is on me, it's the least I can do.”   
  
Lance smiled back, sitting down and shoveling some eggs into his mouth. His taste buds exploded and he moaned in delirium. “This is delicious.” When was the last time he’d been able to make eggs? Tears welled up in his eyes. “ _Thank you_ .”   
  
Katie finished her cooking and brought the pan over to serve them both. “I had to fix your kitchen fan, too, but honestly you’re doing me a favor. I’d fix your whole apartment if you let me.”   
  
“Really?” Lance said, hopeful. Katie had said she was majoring in robotics, but the fact that she would improve his quality of life was a gift. Between school and hero work, he didn’t have the money or the time to do it himself.   
  
He might be in love.   
  
He sat back and listed off the problems with the apartment, using his fingers as visual aides. “Because the faucet in the bathroom is leaky. And the bathtub doesn’t drain well, and the water pressure has been weird since I moved in. Most of the light bulbs don’t work even though I bought brand new ones last month,” he continued, finding himself getting more annoyed as he went on. “The disposal doesn’t work — “   
  
“It does now,” Katie interrupted.   
  
“ — the freezer spits out ice rando — wait you fixed that already too?”   
  
Katie nodded, her face amused but not right out laughing. It was far more sympathetic. “I’m surprised Icebound hasn’t offered to help. He seems like the kind of guy who would want the best for his _best friend_ .   
  
Lance slowed down chewing his latest bite of toast. His heart beat rapidly. He hadn’t foreseen this.   
  
He swallowed hard. “I asked him not to,” Lance finally settled on. He shoved some egg into his mouth, hoping she would take the hint of being done with that part of the conversation.   
  
“I see...” Katie said. She took a sip of orange juice. “Look, Lance, I could fix everything here for you, but it’s a bit ridiculous. It’s all broken, and you’re still in a terrible part of town. That can’t be worth it even this close to the university.”   
  
“I don’t mind it,” Lance retorted. Being in a crime-ridden area allowed him to use his powers for the most good.   
  
Katie looked him dead in the eye, and Lance found himself captivated. There was something eerily familiar with her determined gaze that gave him pause.   
  
“Move in with me,” she said bluntly.   
  
Lance spit out his eggs. “What?!”   
  
“I’m serious,” she continued as he wiped his egg-spattered face with a paper towel. “I have a whole house to myself. Plenty of bedrooms and it’s close to public transit.” Her eyes softened. “You saved my life, Lance. I can get back to searching for my family again.”   
  
An uneasy feeling swirled in his gut. The bus, the nicer place, rent-free… it sounded way too good to be true. Cute girls didn’t just ask him to move i-- 

Cute was the word now??? 

“Look, that’s really nice of you, Katie, but don’t you think it would be a little... weird?” he managed.  
  
“Any weirder than our city having actual superheroes?” Katie sighed, possibly a bit more dramatic than necessary. “Lance, after Pidge I would honestly feel safer if there was someone else in the house. You know my circumstances, you’re a nice guy,” she smirks, “even kind of cute.”   
  
Heat rose to Lance’s cheeks. Why would she use _that_ word?   
  
“And you helped me this far. Please?”   
  
Well, Lance hadn’t considered Pidge coming back. The more he thought about it, the more likely he realized it was. Katie probably knew too much, and Pidge would be after Lance either way. This arrangement would protect both of them, or at least keep the safety in numbers.   
  
But... he wasn’t sure if he could keep Icebound a secret from Katie. In time, he’d have to trust her with his secret.   
  
The thought of that thrilled him; to have someone to confide his real life with.   
  
Katie fidgeted when he didn’t respond. “I accidentally saw the newspaper clipping in your room. And what happened to your family,” she confessed. “I can’t help but think they’d just want you as safe as possible.”   
  
Lance’s heart broke and he set his fork on the table, eyes downcast. Even after two years, the pain - the guilt - was still felt just as fresh. Sometimes he wondered if they were looking out for him, or if they blamed him for not being able to control his powers. 

“It’s fine. I forgot I had it out,” he said evenly. 

Katie’s fingers drummed next to her plate, teeth biting at her bottom lip in thought. “It’s… okay to miss them,” she encouraged. “I know what it’s like.”  
  
“I do miss them. _A lot_ ,” he stressed. His mom’s hugs, his dad’s laughter, his sibling’s harmless teasing all ran through his mind like a slideshow. “I _know_ they wouldn’t want me to sulk, but at the same time...” He locked eyes with Katie with renewed resolve. “Let me help you find your family. If I’m moving in with you, I want to help out however I can.”

If there was a chance he could reunite Katie with her family, he would take it. There was no need for both of them to suffer forever.   
  
Katie’s eyes twinkled and her smile grew wider. Lance’s heart fluttered. This girl might be the doom of him.   
  
“I was hoping you’d say that,” she said. “You like video games?”

Lance smirked, “I know a great arcade right around the corner.”

~~~~~

Lance felt confident as he moved his character over the last hurdle in the video game. He kept his thumb pressed over the Power Save feature on the controller, making sure Loose Lips Lucy’s special attack was fully charged and ready for the moment Katie’s character got too close.   
  
Lucy crouched behind several crates, a favorite hiding spot that no first time opponent had ever found. Lance licked his lips in anticipation. It was his preferred strategy and was looking forward to showing off.   
  
Lance glanced at the timer. Thirty seconds left in the round, and when Lance would win off points accumulated instead of K.O.   
  
Until his controller buzzed, sending him into astonished confusion, and Lucy’s cartoonish blood was splattered across the screen.   
  
A giant K.O. Game Over flashed across his screen.   
  
“What?!” Lance exclaimed, looking for Katie. “How did you —?” His strategy was perfect, he used it for Icebound’s stakeouts for crying out loud!   
  
Katie leaned over from across him, smirking righteously. “Not a very subtle hiding spot.”   
  
“There is no way you found me,” Lance pouted. “You _cheated_ .”   
  
“The consoles are back to back, there’s no way I could have seen you. Face it, you’ve met your match.”   
  
The smug look on her face threatened to melt his icy power core with how mad he was. Saving her from Pidge was one thing, but all bets were off when it came to video games. 

It was _on_ .   
  
“You haven’t even seen a fraction of what I can do. Best two out of three. On the ice planet,” he challenged.   
  
Katie grinned. “Challenge accepted, Lance. That’s my favorite map.”   
  
Lance’s anger proved fleeting. His blood pumped with excitement that he couldn’t remember, for once not fighting for his life or for others, a stupid grin refusing to come off his face.   
  
But before either could insert their tokens, a loud thud resounded off the side paneling. Lance looked down and let out a gasp. The owner of the arcade himself was on the ground and moaning in pain.   
  
The previously bustling center floor stood still, the crowd parting only for a large Galra Enforcer moving their way. Lance gulped as he recognized Throk of the Specials Division.   
  
Lance knelt by the downed man. “Hey, Rolo, dude, you okay?” he said, taking his hand and helping him up.   
  
“Don’t get yourself involved in this one, Kid, it isn’t worth it,” Rolo whispered quickly. “I already rang the police.”   
  
“Isn’t this pathetic, receiving help from a child,” Throk said condescendingly.   
  
The Galra man directed a cruel grin at both Lance and Rolo. Lance kept his gaze on the switchblade that Throk was currently flipping in and out threateningly. This situation would not end well if he couldn’t transform.   
  
Lance stepped forward and balled his fists at his sides, offering the most serious stare he had. “I’m not sure why you’re bothering Rolo and Nyma, but it’s not cool. You’ve got at least twenty witnesses. The police are not going to side with you, even if you are Galra.”   
  
Galra Corp was able to get away with a lot in the city in terms of politics and industry. Most employees were not like Throk, but those who worked security felt they were entitled to anything they wanted. Lance growled. With Pidge on the loose, dealing with corrupt Galra security - Throk had been on the receiving end of Icebound’s punches before - was the last thing he needed to deal with.   
  
“Please, Galra Corp _owns_ the police.” Throk held the switchblade with an outstretched arm, pointed at Lance. “Tell the man to open his cash register, Little Hero,” he sneered. “I would not want anyone to get hurt.”   
  
Lance braced himself but did not back down though Throk’s words were soaked in sarcasm. Nerves tightened and his body prepared for the blow.   
  
None came.   
  
In a flash Throk was down on the ground, writhing in pain. He screamed. “Get them off! Get them off!”   
  
“You can stay there until the police get here,” Katie said calmly, as if she were discussing a cloudless day. Lance turned to find her still in front of her game, holding a small open jar. “Maybe you’ll think twice about doing whatever you want.”   
  
Lance took a closer look at Throk and he saw them. Tiny robots the size of ladybugs crawling over the aggressor’s skin.   
  
He turned to her in awe, grinning now that the threat had passed.”Robotics huh? Pretty cool.”   
  
Katie’s eyes grew wide. “Lance, look out!”   
  
Lance turned in time to see a frenzied Throk race towards him, bringing the blade back to strike.   
  
Dropping to his knees on instinct, he dodged the blow and scurried through Throk’s legs. Now having the advantage of being behind, Lance stood and, putting a bit of his powers into it, delivered a punch to Throk’s face just as the Galra was beginning to turn around. 

Throk landed face down in front of Katie. She squatted and clicked the inside of her mouth, calling the microbots back inside the jar. 

Just like Pidge calling in her tiny robots. Lance shivered. He supposed he’d best get used to more similarities; who knew how many inventions Pidge had stolen from Katie.

She whispered into Throk’s ear, but Lance hadn’t the time to ponder over what she might have said to him. He was too busy blushing over a kiss on the cheek from Rolo’s co-owner. 

“You’re sweet, Lance,” Nyma told him, a bemused smile on her face, “but I really prefer you stay alive. You’re one of our frequent customers.”

Nyma didn’t mean anything by the kiss, he knew that, but the churning in his stomach was more from the warmth in his cheeks. 

“I’m trying,” he said sheepishly. Now that the fight was over and adrenaline faded, Lance was more embarrassed than anything. Thankfully the crowds were already shrugging it off and going back to their various games. 

“You pack a pretty good punch,” Katie said as she walked up to him. Her roundabout compliment and guarded smile sent his heart pounding in a way he couldn’t quite explain. 

“Must have gotten lucky,” Lance shrugged as casually as he could manage. Everyone dug the cool guy attitude, surely Katie would too. “Dad always told me I had a good arm for baseball,” he bragged. 

Katie raised an eyebrow, but her smile remained. “Lucky for us then.”

“And you with your robots,” Lance pointed out. “That was amazing.”

Katie grinned smugly, and that familiar feeling of delight washed over Lance again. “Final projects are supposed to be spectacular. It’s no big deal. We make a pretty good team.”

“If you two think that, try Beezer’s challenge on Defenders of the Universe,” Rolo suggested. 

“The first person shooter?” Katie inquired, head tilted slightly to the side.

“Didn’t you get that over a year ago?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow. “No one’s beat it yet?”

The game was notorious among gaming circles to be extremely challenging, even now after being available to the public for years. It was ideally played with five, and had no solo mode, so two player was the hardest difficulty.

“Not yet,” Nyma said. “Why don’t you two give it a shot while the blood is still pumping. It’ll be on us; a thanks for taking care of that goon.”

Lance looked to Katie and she gazed back. Her amber eyes shone like the sun and Lance couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth curling up in perfect sync with her’s. 

There was no need for words. They were going to beat that game. 

~~~~~

“Did you see that last move?!” Lance rambled, jogging ahead of Katie and turning to face her as they walked - backwards in his case - out of the arcade. “I backflipped into the mob, hit three bulls eyes upside down - then my gun morphed into a sword!!!” He said excitedly. What a rush that had been - unlocking a secret feature, not even _professional_ gamers knew about. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this elated and relaxed, hero problems forgotten for the moment.

“I know!” Katie squealed back, animatedly jumping and bringing her fists to her chest. Her smile matched his own, stretched wide and looked as if it could fall off. “I can’t believe the game let you use it before you could even see what it was! And the finishing blow - I will never get over that mech letting us dual wield those swords. The arms actually responded independently for us! How cool is that?!”

“The absolute _coolest_!” Lance agreed. He snorted - he was going to use that line for Icebound’s next battle. He stopped at the corner. One way would take him back to his apartment, the other to Katie’s house. “Too bad about the final boss though, we almost had him. I bet next time we wipe the floor.”

The briefest of frowns crossed her face, almost as if the idea hadn’t sunk in. “Next time?” Katie inquired. 

“Well sure. I mean, if you want to.” Suddenly the hot cheeks were back and he avoided her face. “We _do_ make a pretty good team and… I had a lot of fun today. Best in a long time,” he said honestly. 

“I had a lot of fun, too,” she said, taking his hand, a warm smile back on her face. “Thank you, Lance.” Without warning, she leaned up on her toes and brushed his cheek with her lips. “Seriously. No matter what happens, I want you to know that.”

Despite the ominous tone to her statement, Lance hung on the kiss. Although friendly, after their chemistry at the arcade and willingness to help each other - and especially moving in together - he seriously doubted they could just stay as friends. He’d only just met Katie, but he felt like he’d known her for years. 

Lance took a deep breath. He could afford to have fun, but first and foremost he needed to remind himself that he did this for their mutual protection from Pidge. 

He forced his smile back at her. “Noted.” He looked around the corner. “Your place is this way right?”

Katie nodded. “I need to prepare for you moving in, and you need to pack. I think we’ll be fine separately for one night.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small wad of green. “Here,” she said, placing it in his hands. “A thank you for now.”

Lance opened his hands and let out a slight gasp at the amount of money he held. “I can’t take this,” he said and reached out to give it back to her. 

“No, keep it,” Katie insisted, pushing his hands away. “We’ll be living together, so you can use it to buy groceries or something.”

Only at her additional prompting did he place it in his own pocket. She was placing a lot of trust in him, the least he could do was return it and take it with grace. If he could find it within himself to do that, it would make his duty as a hero less unbearable. 

“Okay,” he finally said. 

Katie’s lip wobbled. “Thanks again for today. I’m looking forward to hanging out with you a lot more. It reminded me of better days with my brother.”

Lance knew that feeling. So he offered what always helped him, a hug. It began with wrapping an arm around her shoulder. When she wrapped her arms around his waist, he held his tightly around her shoulders. “We both miss our families. I promised I’d help. You don’t have to do it alone anymore.”

“Why are you so concerned about helping me? I’m practically a stranger. It’s not your problem,” she sniffled. 

Because it was a hero’s duty. Because he sympathized. Because he was in the right place at the right time.

“Because it's the right thing to do. Fate must have brought us together for a reason.”

Katie was silent for a long moment, then took a deep breath, voice no longer cracking. “You’re a good person, Lance. I can see why your best friend is a hero.”

Lance scoffed. “My best friend is an engineer who lives across the country.”

Katie blinked, crying suddenly stopped but eyes filled with tears and confusion. “Icebound is an engineer?”

Quiznak. 

“Oh! No! My other best friend!” Lance said, backpedaling. He needed to get out of here before he incriminated himself further. He couldn’t tell Katie now and put her in even more danger. “Since Hunk is so far away, I can’t hang out with him much. Heh, I guess it's not too different from hanging out with a superhero. I don’t see him as much as I’d like either.” 

The lie came off a little more easily than Lance would have liked, and it had the desired effect. Katie seemed to buy it. 

“Well, you’ve got me to hang out with now. I’m looking forward to playing video games and showing you all my robots.”

“Perfect!” Lance said spritely. “Well, I’d better get packing. You good to walk home?” He bit his lip - he really should walk her home at the very least. His father would have scolded him. 

“I’ll be fine, I’d rather you get packing. I’ll feel a lot safer once you’re all moved in.”

They exchanged a wave and Lance turned to walk back to his apartment. Guilt churned in his stomach. Would Pidge use this opportunity to strike? Had she been watching them all day?

Lance turned his walk into a jog. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Be careful when you agree to allow change into your life because once that invitation is made, the universe tends to throw as many changes at you as possible. Neither Lance or Pidge could have predicted what was to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello wonderful readers! I hope you are enjoying the story so far. 
> 
> I wanted to give heads up: this is an _extremely_ long chapter, a great deal happens and there are a lot of details. Normally I would break this up, but given the format we are using and how much happens [Rueita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rueitae/pseuds/Rueitae) and our amazing beta, [DoughntsForever](https://whyamistillhungry.tumblr.com/) agreed that it needed to stay in one chapter. 
> 
> There is one footnote for a phrase (for those of you that want to know what Google Translate tells me but, if I'm wrong please correct me!!) but I'm hoping the situation gives you an idea of what the phrase means.

Pidge mulled over the day as she opened her door. The past twenty four hours had definitely been fascinating. She shook her head and decided to straighten up. Pidge meticulously went through her room and gathered everything that was obviously ‘Pidge’, including some of her smaller experiments that she had left out. 

First, where could she put her Green Starling equipment so that Lance wouldn’t find it? The lab was a good start. If she made it a rule not to go down there, she knew he would the minute she was gone but, she could always put everything back in the secret storage closet. She had gotten lazy about using it. She spent the next hour cleaning the rest of her alter ego’s things up and organizing the closet. 

While she worked her mind continued to pick at the riddle that was Lance. Pidge was relishing the prospect peering into his mind more. How long could she get him to stay with her? She knew he would until he felt the threat of ‘Pidge’ had passed. Then what? He was her link to Icebound. Not only that, she did enjoy having him around. He was kind, selfless, funny, quick-witted and able to keep up with her. He was someone that deserved so much better. That building was a health hazard. 

When she had gone out shopping, she had taken a good look at his place. It had cracks running through the concrete, even the foundations, doors barely locking or hanging off hinges, water staining the ceiling, and broken windows with moldy ac units attached. She also passed several people, who watched her carefully, while leering and staring menacingly. It wouldn’t be a bad thing if that place was destroyed… Wait.

She _could_ destroy it. Or at least make it unfit to live in for a while. Knowing that area, the landlord would most likely torch the place once the city deemed it uninhabitable. Perhaps not. Either way, it ensured that Lance had to stay with her. 

A slow smile crept across her face. A quick check of the map showed she was right, it was on the outskirts of the warehouse district. This would also be the perfect opportunity to send a message to Icebound. She decided a short nap would be in order. Tonight was going to be very busy.

When she woke up, she felt refreshed and grabbed her costume to get ready. Pidge decided this would be the last good use of her bot as she moved close to her target. There was a Galra lab not too far from Lance’s apartment that they passed off as a warehouse. She had sent some tiny drones in several months ago and found out the truth. She had decided that she would just be disruptive, draw out the guards, then catch Icebound’s attention and stagger over to Lance’s building. There was an upstairs corner apartment that she had noticed was vacant and she was planning on ‘accidentally’ smashing. Or at least part of the roof and the outer wall. Just enough to make it mildly structurally unstable but not enough to destroy the whole place.

Pidge decided to send in a few more drones to see what information they could gather while she caused chaos. Once they skittered in under the ‘warehouse’ door, she dropped the cloaking field and began stomping around. It only took a few moments for security to show up. She cackled with glee; it looked like Throk was working as security tonight. Would anyone really miss him if she maybe... stepped on him? Seamlessly dodging Throk’s blasts she wondered how long it would take Icebound to show up. It was amusing to see how enraged Throk was getting at his pitiful attempts to hit her - until he got a lucky shot and one whizzed by her ear. Annoyed, she pinned him down and seriously debated just squashing him. She already had the Galra after her, but murder was something she preferred not to cross into. Throk had been testing that resolve quite a bit though. Between the incident at the arcade and his obnoxious insults, he was really skating on thin ice.

Just then several ice blasts hit the arm holding Throk down. Pidge grinned at the timing. Icebound looked annoyed and was racing towards her. She decided that tossing Throk at him would be more therapeutic. Throk yelled a string of curses at her as she flung him at Icebound, who dodged at the last moment. He hit the wall with a satisfying thunk. She did a quick scan of him as he crumpled to the ground. He would probably be sore and maybe a few broken bones, but nothing serious. She turned her attention to Icebound and decided it was time to put her plan into action. 

“Took you long enough Popsicle Breath! Do I need to send an engraved invitation next time?”

“If I had known you were going to need my attention this badly, I would have been here sooner!”

They traded a few minor blows. She knew most of his moves, so dodging wasn't very difficult. The frustration on his face showed that he knew she was toying with him. Pidge threw a smug look at him but was met with a blast of ice to the face. Enraged, she smashed into him and then hit him with a sucker punch. As he flew backward from the blow, she was almost on top of him raining more blows down on him. 

Without realizing it, they crashed into the corner apartment of Lance’s building. As they smashed through the wall she instantly knew something was wrong. A huge slab of concrete fell into what was obviously a poorly homemade meth lab. She and Icebound shared a look of absolute panic as the blast knocked them back. Icebound scooped her out of her bot, jarring her goggles askew and held her close, instantly encasing them both in ice. They landed with a solid thump on the alley below, the breath knocked out of them. 

With Pidge pressed closely to his chest, she could feel his heart hammering, hear how ragged his breathing was and realized he was warmer than she expected. She was so shocked that he had saved her that when Icebound’s grip loosened, she only looked up in surprise. His dark blue eyes swept over her, checking for injuries, before meeting her gaze. After a second, something shifted in his expression. He stood, which broke the shell apart, and turned away gaping at the destruction for a moment. Racing over he began putting the flames out as another smaller explosion rocked the building causing the remaining side to collapse. 

Icebound continued to fight the flames as Pidge sat rooted to the spot, still trying to understand what had just happened. Why did he save her? Did he have to hold her so close? How could this popsicle be that warm? Why did he look so unnerved just before he stood up? The faint sound of sirens jolted her back to reality. People had gathered in front to watch the spectacle and her bot was now a molten pile of metal. A frantic glance up showed Lance’s apartment was dark but part of the ceiling had collapsed. With her heart in her throat, Pidge turned on her cloaking field and raced up the stairs. She broke Lance’s door down and began frantically searching for him. 

The place was a disaster. Rubble was strewn around the living room and the roof over the bedroom was slightly caved in. Rushing over to the bedroom door, she unceremoniously ripped it off the hinges and dashed in. The roof had smashed most of the closet and the bathroom. Chunks of concrete and roofing dangled precariously from the beams and rafters. After checking thoroughly Pidge heaved a sigh of relief that there was no sign of Lance. She noticed the smashed frame that held the picture of his family and gently picked it up. Studying it for a second, she removed the picture, stuffing it into her suit as the roof groaned dangerously. Ducking back outside she began to head downstairs, relieved that Lance was okay but concerned for where he was. Had he been injured during the fight? 

She passed Icebound, who was still battling the flames and noticed he was down on one knee, panting in the heat. Pidge frowned. It had only been a few minutes since the fire started and they were far enough away from the heat that she barely noticed it. It wasn't any worse than standing in front of a stove making dinner. She had battled Icebound more intensely and for longer, yet he looked like he was about to drop. The scream of the fire engines arriving made her skirt the edge of the crowd, scanning it for Lance. She heard the firemen take over for Icebound as she continued to search. A few moments later she finally saw Lance, covered in soot and sweat, dashing out of a lower apartment and over to a woman trying to calm a young child who was in hysterics. Curious, Pidge moved closer and watched Lance gently hand a stuffed wolf to the little girl. She immediately stopped crying as she snuggled the toy, grinning up at him. He handed a purse to the mother and he passed a terrified looking dog to an older lady next to them.

“Sorry... Sorry I... couldn't get more.” He gasped to them.

“My word boy! Are you trying to get yourself killed? Saving that dog was more than enough!” An elderly woman yelled at him. “It's no use going after things! Those can be replaced. People can't. Now sit down before you fall over!” 

Lance smiled weakly as he sank to the ground, “Yes Ms. Berry.” 

Pidge backed away mulling over everything that she had just seen. Lance was constantly surprising her. She made it back to her house quickly and took a fast shower. Turning on the TV as she got dressed, she noted that the reports of the fire were only ten minutes old. The firefighters were still battling the blaze and a second truck had just arrived. Icebound had managed to contain the fire and keep it from spreading, but it was proving stubborn to put out. So far no deaths and only minor injuries had been reported. She gathered up her purse and headed back, stopping at the store for some drinks. Once she arrived, finding Lance was easy. He was sitting on the ground telling stories to a small crowd of kids. Most of the adults were talking with police or Red Cross workers. Taking a deep breath, Pidge ran up.

“Lance! Oh my gosh, you're okay! I was so worried when I saw the news.”

Lance looked up in surprise, only for a smile to break over his face. “Katie! Yeah, it's been a bit tough, but we're doing okay. Right guys?”

The kids murmured in agreement. Pidge opened her bag a little and peeked in, then looked at them slyly. “So... I guess some Oreos and soda wouldn't be of any help?”

Whoops of delight met that statement and soon she was sitting next to Lance, helping distract the kids. Within another twenty minutes, all of them had been collected by grateful relatives. Ms. Berry stopped in front of them and demanded sternly, “You have somewhere to stay, correct? I'll not have you sleeping on the streets.”

Before Lance could answer Pidge jumped up, “Yes ma'am. He'll be staying with me.”

“Will he now. And who are you, young lady?” 

“This is Katie. She's a... friend from school.” Lance reassured her.

Ms. Berry regarded them for a moment, then with a sharp nod said, “It's nice to meet you. Now, I'll be at my niece's, so be sure to drop by. I'd like to know how you are doing from time to time. Heaven knows this place isn't going to be livable anymore. I'll miss you as a neighbor. Take care of yourself.” With that, she left to meet a younger woman as Lance waved goodbye.

“I feel like I just passed some sort of test,” Pidge joked.

Lance spared her a smile, “Ms. Berry is an odd one. I thought she hated me for a long time, but she just particular about who she befriends. Her niece has been trying to get her to move in with them for months. Looks like she finally will. Guess I'll be moving on sooner too,” his face fell as he stared at the burning building, “not that I have much to move now.”

Pidge felt a pang of guilt at that. She had only intended to wreck that one apartment, not the whole building. Well, at least not this badly. She checked her watch and let out a startled noise. “It's after 11 already. It doesn't look like they're going to let you anywhere near the building, so we should head back to my place.” She glanced at Lance who sighed deeply and stood up with a nod. 

Pidge wanted to talk but wasn’t sure what to say as they began their walk. Everything she wanted to say felt too hollow or trite. Finally, she ventured, “Ms. Berry was right for yelling at you for those heroics. She seems like she was a good neighbor.”

Lance was off in his own world, lost in thought. He hummed a little in response, “Yeah. She was so aloof I thought I insulted her somehow. I helped her with her laundry one day and I figured that was when it happened. Then my downstairs neighbor, Judy, told me Ms. Berry was always trying to set us up. Judy thought Ms. Berry was being really nosey because she would always ask about what I was up to. I guess it was her way of checking on me.” 

They got to her house a few moments later and as they entered, the news report drifted over to them. 

“-crews are still battling the fire however police and fire officials report that it is 95% contained. While the earlier fight between Icebound and Green Starling was thought to have been the cause, it appears that a poorly constructed meth lab was actually to blame from eyewitness accounts. One resident described the explosion as ‘a giant fireball’ from an apartment that had been vacant for quite some time. Only minor injuries have been reported and it has been confirmed that there were no casualties. Reports of PhoenixFire and Arashi have come in from the far side of town but remain unconfirmed. Coming up next you tri-county weather.”

Pidge turned off the TV and noticed how exhausted Lance looked. “Hey, why don’t you grab a shower while I get the room ready for you?”

He gave her a slight nod and she showed him to the bathroom. Once the water started she dashed into Matt’s old room to move a few things. 

_I can’t believe I forgot to move this stuff!_ Pidge grabbed most of the trophies and some of the pictures, making sure to get anything with his name on it. She shoved everything in a box of mementos she kept in her closet. She dashed back and found an old pair of sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a clean towel. 

Pidge knocked on the bathroom door and waited a moment, before yelling over the sound of the spray, “I have clothes and a towel for you! I’m going to put them on the counter, so stay in the shower!” Trying not to think too hard, she cracked open the bathroom door and tossed the bundle on the countertop, before slamming the door shut as Lance yelled “What? I can’t hear you!”

Leaning against the door, she knew her face was burning a cherry red. Had she really done that? The image of him stepping out accidentally was shooed away by a squeal of frustration. What was she thinking!? Not the time! He’s only here so she can find out about Icebound!

Taking a few deep breaths she walked back to Matt’s... no, Lance’s room. Pulling the picture of Lance’s family out, she looked over it one more time before laying it on his pillow and leaving a quickly scrawled note, in her worst handwriting.

_I know what it's like to be alone and no one deserves that. Even heroes._

~~~~~

The next morning Pidge woke up to the smell of waffles. Her dad always made the best waffles and it had been far too long since she had a chance to enjoy them. Smiling, she jumped up and ran into the kitchen, only to stop short at the sight of Lance’s back. Confusion, quickly followed by reality made her flop into a chair. That’s right. Her dad... and Matt were still missing. This was Lance, Icebound’s friend. She stared blankly at the table while trying to reign in her emotions, almost missing the plate that suddenly appeared, piled high with strawberries and whipped cream. Blinking in surprise she jerked her head up to meet Lance’s uncertain smile.

“Good morning? I hope you like waffles. I, uh, I thought you might like strawberries? Oh no! You’re not allergic to them are you?”

Pidge laughed at his growing concern, “No, it’s fine, I love strawberries. It’s just been a really long time since I’ve had waffles. I thought someone else was here... Anyway! This looks great!” She took a big bite to shut herself up and noticed the concern in Lance’s expression deepen. 

Allowing the silence between them to continue for a little while, Pidge finally asked, “Where did you find the ingredients for all of this? I haven’t had a chance to go shopping with everything that has been going on.”

Lance smiled, “You actually had all the ingredients here and strawberries in the back of the freezer. Although I think I used the last of your butter and eggs. Your baking powder may be old too. These didn’t get as fluffy as I had hoped.” 

“Looks like a trip to the store is in order then. I know I’m low on some essentials. Plus, we should pick up stuff you like and some clothes. I have a few things, but that’s about all that will fit you.”

Lance’s expression dropped at that. Pidge cocked her head, brow furrowed, “What’s wrong?”

“Well, since my place is toast, all my stuff is too. I had just gotten home from a few errands and had left my wallet on the table. I... I can’t believe it’s all gone. I mean, it wasn’t the best, but it was the only place I had.” Lance took a shaky breath, eyes glittering. “Ahem, I guess Ms. Berry was right, things can be replaced.” He gave her a weak smile. “Anyway, I don’t have any money to buy anything. I’m pretty sure all my cards and cash are gone. Either the fire got them or someone stole them by now. Guess I should call my bank while I’m thinking of it. Do you have a landline? I’m going to have to get a new phone now too.” 

Pidge’s heart ached at that. He looked so defeated and lost as she pointed him to the phone on the wall. Her dad had always insisted they have an actual landline in case of an emergency.

She slipped back to Lance’s room and riffled around in his desk until she found Matt’s old phone. Once it booted, she wiped it thoroughly and reactivated it with a new number. After a brief debate, she wrote a simple but invisible tracking program with an emergency trigger. If Lance was in a great deal of danger it would send a signal to her. As long as he was actually carrying it. She stacked a few more of Matt’s things and put them in the box in her room. Pidge heard Lance hang up as she entered the living room again. 

He barely looked up as he said, “There were already about five hundred dollars in fraud on my credit card and my bank account was cleaned out. The lady at the bank had seen the news report so she rushed the claims to the fraud department. She’s also making sure the police get the ATM video feed. I have to call the police and file a report too.” He shook his head in annoyance and began to restlessly pace as he ranted, “I guess I only have myself to blame, I knew that place was bad. I should have insisted on going to check on the apartments! Mrs. Alanzo and the Allen’s can’t afford anything like that happening. I know Ms. Berry had a lot of antiques and Judy inherited some stuff from her grandparents.”

Pidge stared at him in surprise. He had said there was no one left who cared, yet here he was caring about his neighbors who obviously felt the same about him, the memory of Ms. Berry’s stern face popping up. 

“Let’s check it out then.”

“What?”

With a shrug, Pidge tossed him the cell phone. He caught it, confused. “Look, this has you really upset and the only way you’ll be happy is if we check it out. It’s not like it’s that far out of the way and we were going out anyway. The worst thing that can happen is the police tell us to leave. If it eases your mind, then taking a walk is worth it. So, let’s go.” Pidge grabbed her small purse and started putting her shoes on. She glanced up to see Lance gaping at the phone, then her. She smirked at him, “You trying to catch flies? Look, it’s an old phone but it works and I don’t need it. Besides, you need a way to get in touch with work, right? If you give me your old number I can transfer it. Don’t worry about the money. Think of it as repayment for getting me all that stuff when I stayed over.”

“Thanks-” Lance looked like he was having trouble holding back tears. 

Pidge pushed down the feelings of guilt harder, “We need to get moving if we want to get everything done today. Do you have to check in with work?”

Lance nodded, “Yeah, I’m sure they are wondering what happened to me after that report. I’ll call them after we check out the apartment.” With that, they began what became an interesting day. 

~~~~~

The burned out husk of the apartment building was far worse than either of them were expecting. A bored looking deputy warned them not to get too close since it was a crime scene. Apparently, the meth lab owner came back to try to remove anything linking him to the site and then looted Lance’s apartment since it was so close. They caught the guy trying to use Lance’s card after it was canceled because he threw a fit in a store when it wouldn’t work and threatened the clerk. The officer told them to head to the police station so Lance could make his report and press charges, but refused to let them up to the apartment.

Pidge decided she didn’t want to be anywhere near the police station, so she offered to transfer his cell phone number and find somewhere for lunch, but Lance looked so upset she stayed with him. _Of course, it would be Detective Iverson handling the case._ Pidge thought bitterly. She hung back as far as she could while Lance was interviewed, then Iverson explained what would happen next. 

“From Haxus’s record, he’s looking at some time in jail. Between the threats to the clerk, the fraud and running that meth lab, he’s looking at least 10 years. This isn’t our first run-in with him. I’m expecting him to make bail later today though. He’s got a good lawyer so they may settle with you and make a deal with us. You should be able to at least get what he stole and whatever other fees he caused. I have no idea why he thought stealing this stuff would be a good idea. It’s not like he needs it. I’d also be careful, he’s not the worst, but some of his friends may take offense to him getting in trouble again.”

Lance paled a little at that and Pidge bristled, ready to demand Iverson do more. The reality that trying to get him police protection would risk her identity came crashing down. Besides, she could protect him better than the police _and_ she could drop a hint to Icebound, if he didn't find out soon enough. Pidge promised herself she would keep an eye out for Haxus.

Just before they left, Iverson stared at Pidge then said, “You should stop poking around. That case is closed and there’s nothing to be gained from stirring up trouble. If you keep it up, action will have to be taken.” Pidge froze as Lance looked on uneasily. Then, without turning around she simply said, “I’ll take that into consideration.” and walked away briskly. Lance jogged to catch up outside.

"What was that about?" 

"Nothing. Don't worry about it. Iverson is just being an ass. Let's get some of this shopping done, I didn’t realize how ragged that outfit was.”

Lance opened his mouth to argue but a stern look from Pidge made him snap it shut. She marched into the nearest store and pointed Lance to the men’s department. “Get everything you need. I expect to see more than two pairs of everything.”

Lance decided that lightening the mood was the best course of action at this point. “So three pairs? I’ll have to check because underwear and socks come in such large packs.”

Pidge looked at him in exasperation, cheeks reddening, “You know that’s not what I meant! I’m trying to be practical here.”

Lance laughed, “Why don’t you help me find some shirts? I always hated that part because I can never figure out what I liked. I’m going to miss those star PJs though. I never did get to wear them.”

“Guess we’ll have to get you another pair. How about this shirt?” Pidge held up a neon watercolor Hawian button up. At Lance’s horrified expression she giggled and then held up a NASA logo shirt. She laughed harder as relief flooded his face.

They spent a good two hours finding Lance a new wardrobe and some toiletries. Pidge was shocked at how fast the time had passed. She had never enjoyed shopping so much. It was so comfortable being with him that as they sat down to lunch, she almost missed it when the waitress asked what his ‘girlfriend’ was going to have. Lance choked on his drink as they both turned bright red and they tried to explain. The waitress only smiled and finished taking Pidge’s order. There was an awkward silence that Lance finally broke with a strangled chuckle.

“Haha, I can’t believe she thought we were dating. I mean, we barely know each other!” 

Pidge felt a flash of disappointment, “Well, we are going to be roommates. We have to get along on some level to pull that off and we seemed to do fine the other day.” She looked up from playing with her straw to see Lance flushed but contemplative. She stopped in surprise and watched as he debated something but the waitress setting down their lunch broke the mood. 

“Here you go! A burger for you dear and a wrap for your adorable friend. You guys really are cute together.” She leaned down to Lance and stage whispered, “I bet if you ask her, she’ll say yes. I haven’t seen anyone this smitten in quite a while.” With a final smile, she left a very stunned silence in her wake.

Lance was the first to recover, “Well, I guess there’s no convincing her that we aren’t together. So, should we play along and let her think she got us together?”

Pidge’s heart began to pound as she stared at him in shock. _Date? Lance?_ He was right, they barely knew each other, but today and yesterday had been so effortless. She couldn’t remember being this comfortable with anyone before. But to start dating now? That could make everything really bad if things went sour. Or worse, if she finally defeated Icebound. Lance seemed far too loyal of a friend to continue a relationship with someone who hated his friend. What if he found out her secret identity? He’d never forgive her for blowing up the apartment. 

Lance gave her a small smile, “Yeah, that would be a terrible idea.” His voice fell a little as he mumbled, “You’d be in so much danger all the time... Man, I’m starving!” With that, he took a big bite of his burger and made approving noises as he started watching the other patrons. 

Pidge glanced down at her wrap, not as hungry as she had been. Why was it when he said dating was a terrible idea her stomach felt like lead? This was ridiculous! She was a supervillain, she should be trying to get information out of him about Icebound. Not mooning over him like some lovesick teenager. But even after that mental pep talk, she still felt off. She took a big bite of her wrap and began people watching as well. The waitress returned to refill their drinks and looked disappointed. 

Pidge finally couldn’t take the silence. “We need to get to the grocery store before it gets too late. Are there any weird foods you like or anything you’re allergic to?”

“I like just about anything, no allergies either. I love garlic knots though. The ones from Antonio’s are my favorite. What about you?”

Pidge relaxed as Lance became more animated and the uneasy tension between them started to dissolve. “I love peanut butter. But not peanuts, they’re too dry. I’m not too picky otherwise as long as the food’s not too spicy.”

“Spicy is the best though! You haven’t lived until you almost melted your face off because of the heat from an amazing dish. Everyone needs something spicy once in a while.”

“Spicy is fine, but that level of heat is just obnoxious. You kill all your tastebuds and there’s no flavor at that point. It’s an exercise in self-torture.”

The waitress suddenly placed a large sundae between them. “Looks like you may need to cool that spicy down.”

Pidge and Lance both jumped and flushed, stuttering their thanks. The waitress just laughed with a twinkle in her eye and winked at them, “On the house.”

They finished up and decided it was time to get out of there as fast as they could. The waitress sent them a knowing smile as they practically ran out the door. Once outside Pidge began laughing. “I was so mortified. I can’t believe that happened!”

Lance joined her in laughter as they walked down the street to the store. “She was pretty convinced there was something going on. I haven’t had that much of a misunderstanding with someone since Hunk... uh, in a few years.”

~~~~~

They ended up buying a lot more food than Pidge expected. Lance insisted on cooking several meals. She was more than willing to agree to that since she usually forgot to eat or just grabbed something to go. Arms loaded down with bags they stumbled into the house and began putting everything away. Lance shooed her out of the kitchen, promising her a delicious meal. She decided to take all the tags off of his new clothes and wash them. Once that was done she sat at the breakfast bar and reprogrammed the phone with his old number. It began to beep with several voicemail notifications. 

Surprised, Lance turned to her, “Is that _my_ phone?”

“Yeah. It looks like someone was really worried about you.”

“Can you finish stirring this?” He indicated the saute on the stove and opened the voicemail app. 

The first few, from what she could hear from their tone, the person was a bit worried. Then messages got a bit more insistent. The next was a jarring change because the person was calm and professional. The final one was Iverson’s unmistakable rumble. Lance let out a sigh as he hit the call button.  
  
“Hey, Coran.” The same frantic tone was coming from the earpiece again. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m staying with a friend.” With a roll of his eyes, Lance shook his head, “Yes, I _do_ have friends, as shocking as that might be.” Lance listened for a few more moments as Coran’s voice fell back into the normal range. “The place is too structurally unsound since I was right next door. They won’t let me back up anytime soon. My friend hooked me up with a few outfits, so I won’t look like a total bum when I come back.” Lance’s eyes widened as Coran’s voice became animated, “What do you mean time off?! I can’t afford that. I need all the hours I can get, especially after that jerk wiped out my account. Yeah, the idiot that lived there looted my place after everyone left. No, they caught him. Look, I’ll be in- Okay fine, I’ll be in on Monday. Really? Thanks. I’ll see you then.” Lance gave a little chuckle as he hung up. “That was my manager Coran. He saw the news and was worried.”

Pidge’s lips twitched, “Really? I couldn’t tell. That man’s voice can carry! I didn’t hear what was said, but his tone was obvious, he really cares.”

“I never really thought about it, but yeah, I guess he does. He’s a good guy. He’s going to make sure I get paid for the next few days. Can you add that ground beef while I make another call?”

“Sure, I can do that much without burning the place down.”

Lance headed into the living room, where she faintly heard him talking. She thought she caught Iverson’s name. He came back a few minutes later and took over cooking. Pidge started to ask, but his pensive expression made her pause. Instead, she headed to the laundry room to switch the clothes and contemplated what she had learned so far. 

Lance had Mrs. Berry, several other neighbors and now his boss Coran, who cared about him. He was Icebound’s best friend. _He would have made a terrible long term hostage_ , she snickered to herself. On the other hand, he was smart, sweet, witty and comfortable to be around. Getting teased about being in a relationship had made her... happy? Hopeful? _Would it be that bad?_ No one knew who she was. She could protect him even as herself. No. This was crazy. She had to stay focused. He was here so she could find out more about Icebound. And because she accidentally destroyed his entire apartment building. Pidge took a deep breath to calm her nerves. 

The delicious smell of tomato, garlic, spices, and a tang of pepper greeted her as she sat at the breakfast bar. Lance smiled as he put a bowl of rice piled high with a ground beef concoction. Grinning at her confused expression he said, “It’s called picadillo and this is my family’s recipe. Don’t worry it’s not that spicy.” He watched as she cautiously took a small bite, letting out a chuckle as the caution turned to surprise.

“This is really good! Wait, I thought you said you couldn’t cook? You’re such a liar. Just for that, you’re going to be in charge of meals from now on.”

“That can be arranged,” Lance winked as he sat down and took a gulp of his glass of ice water. 

Pidge noticed there was a thin sheen of sweat covering his face. Curious, she got up under the guise of getting her own drink and checked the stove. It wasn’t very hot. The burner had already cooled to a reasonable temperature. The memory of Icebound dealing with the fire tickled her memory. Frowning she made a mental note of that detail as she poured herself some iced tea and sat down she studied Lance over the top of her glass. He still looked flushed but he didn’t look like he was sweating as badly. Taking a chance she cleared her throat, “Looks like the heat is getting to you,” she smirked at him. Lance’s head jerked up, worry creasing his face. She just chuckled, “I think you may have made it too spicy. You’re sweating.” 

“What? No way! It’s never too spicy. You must be seeing things.” At his nervous laugh, her stomach dropped a little. _It couldn’t be?_

Lance quickly interrupted her thoughts as he started raving about the fantastic dessert he made. Then his phone halted the conversation. His surprised expression turned apologetic as he stood to answer it. Pidge’s brow furrowed and she motioned for him to stay. 

“Hello? Wow, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you already.” Lance glanced at her and after a moment he sat back down. “I understand. Tomorrow? What time?” He held her gaze and then tensed, “Umm, let me check. I’ll have to bring my people.” Pidge only nodded vigorously. Whatever it was, she was going to be there. “Eleven should be fine. Cafe Altea? Okay, we’ll be there.” He sagged in the chair after he hung up. Pidge tried to keep the concern from radiating off of her, but he only looked up with a faint smile.

“So that was Haxus’s lawyer. He wants to meet with me tomorrow and discuss ‘the measures that need to be taken to ensure compensation is satisfactory’.” Lance laughed at Pidge’s incredulous expression. “Yeah, the guy sounded really ritzy.” then he sobered, “Are you sure you want to come with me?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course I will! I don’t trust those guys and wouldn’t want you going there alone.” At Lance’s startled expression Pidge felt herself flush a bit but decided to tease him. She stuck her nose in the air, “Besides, they may try to kidnap you. Then I would be out a bodyguard _and_ a roommate. I just got that room ready for you. It would just be too inconvenient if you ran into trouble because of them.”

Lance’s snort of laughter made her relax and she peeked at him out of the corner of her eye. He caught her eye and dramatically sighed, “Heaven knows I wouldn’t want to inconvenience _you_ . I _suppose_ having you along for protection would be worth it.” 

They both dissolved into laughter, but Pidge began to make a list of things she should bring just in case. Once Lance calmed down she asked hesitantly, “Will I be enough to dissuade them? Should we call... Iverson?” 

Lance paused, then shook his head, “That’s why we are meeting at Altea. There’s normally a crowd starting just after eleven. Plus I have some friends that work there, I’ll text them as extra insurance.”

She nodded and they finished dinner. Lance’s Dulce de Leche dessert was amazing, but Pidge’s mind was a million miles away. She had shooed Lance away, telling him it was only fair she cleaned up. As she went through the motions of cleaning, she began planning some tweaks to her nanobots and microbots.

~~~~~

The next day Pidge made sure to pick out the sweetest looking dress, applied the most natural makeup, with just enough blush and lipgloss to make her look cute and braided the sides of her hair into a small ponytail. _If I look as harmless as possible, they won’t see me as a threat and maybe I can learn something. This whole thing seems off. Iverson said Haxus didn’t need the money from the drug lab. Then why run one? Especially in a rickety apartment complex?_

When she entered the living room, Lance was busy texting someone. She grabbed a cup of coffee, though her stomach was too knotted at the potential danger they were about to face for her to drink much of it. Lance wandered in a moment later and began making a cup of coffee for himself, not really looking up from his phone. Finally, with a few more clicks as he put the creamer away Lance said, “Okay, that should take care of everything.”

“What have you got lined up for this?” 

“My brother used to date the manager, so she’ll be keeping an eye on the situation. Coran got worried when I mentioned it, so he’s sending an intern to pretend to do an interview with the chef, or at least record what’s going on just in case.” Lance turned with a shrug, “Personally I think that’s a bit extreme and possibly illegal but...” 

Pidge looked up to see Lance’s coffee cup hanging precariously from his hand, with a completely stunned expression on his face, and a small puddle of coffee at his feet. Pidge jumped up and snagged the cup before it could spill anymore 

“What the heck Lance? You’re going to make a huge mess if you don’t pay attention!”

He flushed a deep red, “S-sorry! I, uh, ahem. Yeah, you’re right. I should pay more attention to you. I mean, what I was- You’re so cute. When did you get so cute? You know what, I forgot to do… the thing. Shoes! I forgot my shoes!” Lance skittered around her as if his life depended on it. 

She stood there speechless for a few seconds. Had he really just called her cute? Had she really managed to fluster him that badly? Shaking her head with a smile she cleaned up the coffee spill, then checked the time. They should get going before it got too much later. She headed back to her room to get her purse and shoes, meeting Lance at the door. He swallowed nervously, “Can we forget that I just made an absolute idiot of myself just now?”

Pidge bit her lip, sadness beginning to creep in, then decided to see what would happen, “You mean I’m not cute?”

Lance flushed again, “What? No! I mean you are! I... just didn’t realize it. I mean, I wasn’t ready to see you dressed like that. It took me off guard.”

“Like this? Oh, the makeup. I figured if I looked harmless, it would make them less suspicious of why I’m there.” Pidge glanced at her watch, trying to ignore the pounding of her heart and dragged Lance out the door. “We need to get moving or we’ll be late.”

~~~~~

Cafe Altea was just trendy enough to have a small crowd already but not trendy enough that it was overwhelming. They were greeted at the door by a tall brunette woman who scooped Lance into a hug. “Lance! It’s been too long. You need to come visit more! Hunk sent some great ingredients the other day and Sal has been creating all sorts of great new dishes.” With a whisper, she said, “Those guys are here, and they look like long term trouble. Keep playing along.” 

Lance gave her a short nod and with a smile said, “Lea, you are too much. This is -”

“Your girlfriend! I’m sorry it took us so long to finally meet. Between the cafe and Lance’s crazy schedule I haven’t had a chance to meet up with you. Now, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time. Where would you like to sit?”

“Actually, we’re meeting someone and it looks like they are already here.” Lance gave Lea one last smile as he and Pidge made their way to the slightly secluded table near the window. 

A tall, slender man with long dark hair and an impeccable suit stood up as they approached. He sharply nudged Haxus, who stood up sullenly.   
  
“Mr. McClain. I’m Lotor Sincline, we spoke on the phone? Thank you for meeting us.” Lotor gave a sharp smile as he extended his hand.

“Yes, of course.” Lance tried to mask his nervousness by pulling out Pidge’s chair for her before taking a seat himself. 

“I wasn’t aware you were bringing anyone. Who is your radiant friend?” Lotor’s smile slipped slightly.

“Hehe! Oh, you’re too much Mr. Sincline!” Pidge felt queasy as she giggled vapidly at him. Lotor and Haxus were making her skin crawl. “I’m Starla. I didn't realize this was a meeting! Lance said something about lunch and I was just so excited because I haven’t been here yet!” She let her lip wobble a bit, “Should I have not come?” She was desperately trying to ignore Haxus’s leering and hoping she wasn’t laying it on too thick. 

Lotor seemed to relax and smiled indulgently at her, “No. It’s quite alright.”

Lea came over to take their order, claiming they were short staffed. Once the drinks came, Lotor got down to business. 

“Now, Mr. McClain, I understand that due to Haxus’s carelessness you have suffered great property, financial and personal loss. We are here to discuss how to make reparations. My client has much to answer for, however, if we can avoid a civil trial, it would be much easier for all of us.”

Pidge watched carefully as she sipped on her drink. Haxus was shifting between looking bored and leering at her some more. Lance was listening closely, she could tell he was trying to gauge Lotor’s honesty. This whole thing sounded like a bribe. As Lea came to drop off their meal she caught Lance staring at something in surprise. Lea stepped on his foot with a frown and walked away. Pidge saw Lotor and Haxus turn at Lance’s small yelp, which he covered with a cough. 

“Oh no! Are you alright? Have some water.” Pidge shoved the glass of water into Lance’s hands and began hitting his back. 

Lance gave her a soft smile and then cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Something went down the wrong pipe. Now, where were we?”

“Ah yes. We wanted to see if we could come to an agreement for financial restitution without having to deal with the extra hassle of civil court. We are prepared to present you with a handsome sum.” 

Lance studied Lotor then said, “I don’t know. This almost sounds like a bribe.”

Haxus scowled at him, “I already have to go to court once because of you and there are a lot of people angry about it. Don’t make it a second time. Just take the money.”

Pidge tensed. The hostility in Haxus’s voice was as unmistakable as the resentment in his eyes. It was obvious he didn’t want to be here. Lotor only gave him a disapproving look before he continued. 

“That’s enough Haxus. There is no doubt that he will have to deal with the criminal charges, and there are some associates of ours that are… less than pleased, with the situation. But we are here purely to deal with your losses.” Lotor took an envelope out of jacket pocket and handed it to Lance. “I believe this should more than cover everything.”

Lance opened the envelope and Pidge saw a wad of cash along with a check. Lance thumbed the money with a gulp and she stifled a gasp when she saw it was all hundreds. Instead, she went back to studying Lotor and Haxus, while twirling her hair and feigning disinterest. Lotor was keeping a close eye on Lance’s reaction. Haxus was doing the same but with far more malice and he was fidgeting with something under the table. 

Pidge pretended to drop her napkin so she could see what Haxus was doing. He had a small receiver that he kept flipping on and off. As she sat up, she scanned the cafe. The place was fairly crowded now and the bar full. Most of the tables were couples and small families, while the bar was business people grabbing a quick bite. Then her heart dropped. 

Throk was leaning against the far end of the bar. At another table about halfway through the cafe, there were some more Galra operatives. One more group took a seat at a table right by the door. They were surrounded.

Keeping as calm as possible, she wrapped her hands around Lance’s upper arm and looked up at him as adoringly as she could, “Oh, sweetie! This is so wonderful! Now you can get out of that terrible hotel and find a nicer place.”

Lance’s brow creased for half a second before Lea interrupted, “Can I get you guys anything else? Some dessert perhaps?”

Haxus narrowed his eyes at her, but Lotor only asked politely what they had as Pidge tried to look excited and hopeful at the suggestion.   
  
“We have some Baileys Cheesecake, strawberry shortcake with chocolate sponge cake, lemon mint sorbet, and a coconut lychee alu e matautia*.”

Lotor smiled indulgently at Pidge, “Anything tickle your fancy, my dear?” 

“It all sounds so wonderful! I wouldn’t know what to have.” She gave him a sweet smile while trying not to grimace. This was getting harder and harder to do.

“Then allow me. I will have the sorbet. And she will have the shortcake.” Lotor barely spared Haxus a glance as he tried to hide a smug smile at Lance.

Lance cleared his throat, “Well, everything has been fantastic and you are correct, this is more than enough compensation. We should really get going.”

“Oh, no. I insist. I would be remiss of me if I failed to provide you with a full meal to help close our deal.”

Lance smiled faintly, “Of course. I think I’ll just have an iced mocha and get that coconut lychee to go. Tell Sal that everything was fantastic, as usual. I’m too full for dessert now, but it sounds amazing.”

Haxus grumbled something about coffee and the cheesecake. Once Lea left, Lotor nodded at Lance. 

“We have an agreement then? The compensation and no civil charges, correct?”

Lance narrowed his eyes, “Don’t you want that in writing or something?”

Haxus laughed, “Nah. You won’t be that stupid. If you do try, it won’t be a pleasant experience.” 

Lea dropped off the desserts just then as Lotor snapped, “Enough Haxus! You are making things far more difficult than they need to be. You’ll give everyone the wrong idea. I believe we have accomplished what we needed.” He handed Lea his credit card. “The check is able to be cashed at your leisure. I didn’t think it wise to carry that much cash around.” Lea returned quickly with the receipt. Lotor stood and shook Lance’s hand. “It was a pleasure doing business with you. I only wish it had been under better circumstances.” He then took Pidge’s hand in both of his. “If there is anything I can assist you with, please let me know.” He pressed a light kiss on her knuckles and then slipped his card into her hand.

Pidge tittered a giggle at him to cover the revulsion she was feeling. She saw Lance’s jaw clench as if he was biting back a response, so she draped herself over Lance’s arm, “Come on honey, you promised me a movie after lunch!” 

“I need to drop this at home first. Why don’t you look up the next showing?” He gazed down at her with relief in his eyes as Lea handed him the to go bag. He and Pidge quickly made their way out of the cafe while eyes seemed to follow them.

~~~~~

The following week they had already fallen into a comfortable routine. Lance took care of the cooking as promised and they shared laundry duty. 

Pidge impressed on him once again how important it was that he leave her workshop alone since she was so far behind on her research. Not a total lie, and if he wanted to believe she was behind on schoolwork, all the better. The first time he did his laundry she had been an anxious mess the entire time. She kept expecting him to come bursting into the living room because she forgot to hide her Green Starling gear and he knew who she really was. Everything was fine, of course, but she made certain to be diligent about keeping her equipment put away. 

Lance had also headed back to work, which gave her plenty of time to work on her bots and research. Pidge had managed to redesign her mech, build some more microbots, upgrade the cloaking field on her suit and create a microdrone.

They didn’t really talk about what had happened with Lotor and Haxus. Pidge couldn’t shake the feeling that Lance was in a great deal of danger. The amount of money Lotor had given him was more than enough for him to put a down payment on a nice place, buy new furniture and a new wardrobe. Instead, he put most of it in a savings account, after verifying it was clean. He was going to invest a portion later. He also insisted on paying her back for everything she bought him and paid his share of the bills right away.

The creative energy seemed to leave her the next day. She wasn’t making very much headway in her most recent design, so she decided that getting out of the house sounded like a great idea. As she headed out to grab a light lunch, her skin prickled uncomfortably. Pidge found herself hurrying a little faster however she forced herself to slow down and take a closer look. There was a car she didn’t recognize parked near the end of the street. Pretending to stretch, she sent a microbot over to inspect it. Feeling a little more reassured, Pidge made her way to her favorite deli.

After her lunch was dropped off she pulled up the bot’s camera with an app on her phone and tucked a headphone in. Her blood instantly ran cold as Throk and Haxus popped up on the screen.

“What’re we even looking for? He won’t be back for a few more hours.” Throk complained, draining his soda. 

“Shut up. I know you think this is pointless but Lotor said it was a good idea to keep an eye on him.” Haxus kept his gaze locked on one of the neighbor’s houses. 

“I don’t think he’s dumb enough to press the civil suit.”

“You- Really?! That’s what you think this is about? You’re such a moron.”

“What? He’s a nobody.”

“He knows something about Icebound. You know how much Honerva wants to find him.”

Throk looked surprised, “Seriously? How does that work?”

“Icebound is the most visible of these new heroes. PhoenixFire and Arashi aren’t around much and we can’t find any information on them. If we get Icebound, we can get them all.” The confusion in Throk’s face just made Haxus give a long-suffering sigh. “Look, just don’t worry about it. We just need to keep track of what he does. So far, it’s been pretty normal.” he looked at his watch and then rubbed his eyes. “Let’s call it a day, I need to get some runs done before it gets too much later.”

“Good. This is boring and I have a shift tonight.” Throk grumbled, “It’s been pretty quiet but we have that shipment coming in soon and we’ll have to increase security because of that damned Green Starling.”

Haxus frowned. “It has been pretty quiet. I haven’t seen Icebound or Green Starling around since that last battle. I’m still pissed they wrecked my lab.”

“It’s your own fault for setting it up in such a crappy place. You should have just used one of the warehouses.”

“It had to be untraceable. It’s better for everyone if it looked like I was acting alone. The fact that it blew like that shows that the formula was too unstable. I’ll need to talk with Maahox about those ratios.” 

Just then Throk’s phone rang. “Hello? Yes, sir. Of course. We’re on the way.” Ending the call he told Haxus, “Change of plans. We need to get to the office. Looks like there’s a new plan for the shipment.”

Pidge turned off the camera after sending a few commands to the bot. It should be able to find a way into the meeting, or at least trail the Galra men. She signaled for a box and tried not to panic. So far, they didn’t have much information, but the fact that Lance was still on their radar scared her far more than she was expecting.

Thanking her lucky stars that she had left through the side door and that they had missed her, Pidge rushed home. There were several new features that she needed to add to the house’s security system. The doors now had electromagnetic locks thanks to her nanobots, as well as a few nasty surprises for anyone trying to break in. Once Lance got home, she sent a microbot into his cell phone to update the program she had installed. If she stuck closer to Lance than usual, well, he wasn’t complaining.

~~~~~

Over the next week, Pidge was more aware of Haxus sulking around and sometimes straight out following Lance. She finally called Iverson with an anonymous tip about a stalker who bore a striking resemblance to Haxus, who was still out on bail. She watched in glee from across the street from where she was about to meet Lance for lunch as Haxus got arrested.

The shipment Throk had mentioned piqued her curiosity. Doing some research, and a small amount of hacking, she found not only the information on the shipment of highly suspicious chemicals coming into port later this week but, by following the information rabbit hole, she found some of the files about the experiment Haxus had been running. It was an attempt to create a chemical that could be used as a biological weapon. They were damn lucky it had been unfinished and inert when it exploded. 

_What are they planning?_ Her father’s experiment and research had dangerous enough implications. But add this to it? Were they going to wipe out cities? Hold the world ransom? Sell to the highest bidder? If only she knew where the backup of her father’s work was! Then she could get a clearer idea of what they were up to. She knew he had a complete backup somewhere. He was paranoid, but not stupid. He had, of course, backed it up in numerous places but only in fragments. The Galra had been trying to piece everything together since the lab had been destroyed, with no luck. 

Pidge leaned back in her chair to consider everything. She could get some of this to Iverson, but would it be enough to start an investigation? Right now it looked like harmless experiments, very few people would understand the danger they could pose. Plus even if it was an anonymous tip, Iverson would know it was her. Maybe going to Montgomery? With a sigh of frustration, she tossed her pen down and rubbed her temples. This was getting her nowhere. She could at least disrupt the shipment. Green Starling had only wreaked minor havoc over the past few days and it was about time to remind them why she was a threat. She heard the front door open and looked at her watch to see it was well after 6. After a stretch and fast survey of the lab to make sure none of her alter ego gear was out, she headed up into the living room.

Lance was slumped in a chair, with his head leaning over the back of the chair and eyes closed, exhaustion radiating off of him. Pidge flopped down on the floor next to him. 

“You look like how I feel. Rough day?”

Lance only groaned, “Just kill me now. Coran has dumped a whole bunch of work on me because of all the events this week and one of our interns is on vacation, the other is out sick. To top it off one of the other reporters quit to run away with their boyfriend.” 

“Well, it sounds like tonight is pizza night. Any requests? Or do we need beer too?”

Lance cracked his eye and gave a weary smile. “Whatever you want. I think there’s a few beers left in the fridge.”

Pidge nodded and checked the fridge. While she pulled up the app for the pizza shop, she found the drinks and passed one to Lance as she closed the app.

“Pizza should be here shortly. Why don’t you get changed? It looks like you ran around town all day.”

“I don’t wanna move.” he pouted, then with a sigh, he dragged himself up. ”You’re right though. I had to cover two events on opposite sides of town, within an hour and traffic was a mess. I ended up having to run the last few blocks. I wish I had a teleporter.”

“Take your time. You still have at least a half an hour before the pizza gets here.”

Lance dragged himself out of the chair, “If I’m not back by then, send a search party.”

Pidge just laughed. “If I remember. I’m going to work on a new design!”

“Right now? We’ll both end up missing the pizza guy if we’re not careful.”

Pidge had already jumped up, “Genius doesn't allow for plans! Inspiration strikes when it will!”

Lance shook his head in bemusement as she darted down the stairs.

Pidge frantically sketched out designs and made notes as fast as she could. A teleporter would be so helpful. Most of the science was hypothetical, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t try to figure it out. After what seemed like no time at all, Lance was knocking on her door to announce the pizza was there. She jotted a few more notes down and followed him upstairs.

As they lounged while eating, the TV on as background noise, a news report came on about the ongoing protests. Thinking about Lance’s earlier complaints, she looked at him thoughtfully.

“There are a lot of events going on lately. Do you cover all of them?”

“Nah. We try to focus on stuff that would be relevant to college kids. Between Keith and I, we can usually hit all of them. Having Nadia around was a big help, but we’ll find someone else.”

Pidge grinned at him, “You could totally use this knowledge for nefarious purposes.”

“Hahaha, I’m not sure what I know would be that helpful for something like that.” 

“Well, say... hypothetically, if someone wanted to steal a bunch of chemicals, when would the best time this week to do it?” Lance looked at her curiously, but she merely raised her eyebrows at him. "I was just wondering. I mean, no one has seen Green Starling in a while and isn't there a big shipment of chemicals coming in soon?" She gestured to the TV, where a field reporter was interviewing a protester.

“Hmmm... Well, there’s a baseball game Tuesday, the farmer’s market Thursday, that huge concert Friday and the arts festival on the waterfront over the weekend. Traffic will be a nightmare downtown all week.” 

“Oh? Which ones are you covering?” 

“Eh, I’m stuck with baseball again. I should have never asked for those tickets for my cousin! Now Coran thinks I love the game. Apparently, he played when he was younger and now he’s always talking my ear off about it.”

“Well, that’s your own fault then. Why don’t you just tell him you don’t like it?”

With a shrug, Lance finished his pizza, “It’s just easier this way. Keith hates all sports, but he’s willing to take the art shows, theater performances and most of the other club stuff.” Lance yawned and started to gather the remains of dinner up. “I have an early morning tomorrow. Don’t stay up too late on your work, sweetie.”

Pidge looked at him in surprise, but it didn’t look like he realized what he said. "Sure. Hey, maybe we could hit up the farmer's market? The arts festival will be a crowded mess and I hate being around that many sweaty people." She suppressed a shiver as Lance laughed.

“Sounds great. Night.”

Pidge went back to her lab and began to work on a plan. Before she knew it, she smelled coffee, signaling that morning had come. Rubbing her eyes she staggered into the kitchen.

"You were up all night again weren't you?" Lance asked in exasperation.

"Genius doesn't allow for plans." She blearily opened the fridge looking for the creamer. Lance just laughed and handed her a cup. "You are an angel." After taking a few sips, she asked, "Can you mail this for me on your way to work?" Surprised, he took the manila envelope. "Some paperwork the dean needed about my absences."

Lance's face softened, "Of course. Anything else I can do?"

"I think we need milk? I don't know right now. I need sleep."

"I'll take care of it, as long as you promise to actually sleep." Lance took the coffee cup from her and gently steered her to her room. 

"Mmmh hmmm. No argument there." Pidge wobbled the last few feet to her bed and promptly fell asleep. 

Pidge woke up several hours later to a growling stomach. She heated up some pizza as she loaded the surveillance video from the micro droid Lance had unwittingly set loose. It had been programmed to crawl out of the envelope once it was in the mailbox and infiltrate the Galra building next to it. Once inside, it found a computer, buried itself into the motherboard and began transmitting files. 

She spent some time skimming through them but found most of it was not very important. Until one named _Tenki Alchemy Center_ caught her eye. Pidge held her breath as she opened the file. It had information about the research center and what future plans had been made. She already knew a little, from what her father and brother had talked about. This file had far more information. 

Buried in the maze of folders was an outline of what Haxor and Maahox were working on. The next file made her heart swell with hope. Matt's name was listed as a researcher in the current project and it had been updated earlier in the week. Pulse pounding, she found the root directory and tried to download the files. That only triggered the malware program. Quickly backing out of the download, she considered her next move. As long as she could view the files with no problem, but as soon as she tried to copy, move or download anything, the security systems would kick in. It seemed the only way to get these files was to go there and download them in person. 

It looked like it was time for Green Starling to get back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Samoan: Go, it's dangerous.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For this evening's meal, a healthy portion of angst with a side of emotional hurt/comfort. For dessert, absolute blind idiocy.

The ground greeted his forearms with shuddering thud, the impact tingling through his elbows and up his arms. His shoulders gave out, strength zapped from the hour of fighting. Lance dropped and rolled onto his back. One of these days he was going to break an arm if he didn’t stop bracing his falls.   


No time now. Lance yelped, scrambling out of the way of the green laser. At least Haxus, Throk, and the Galra Specials were leaving him alone, hopefully grateful enough that he was  _ doing their job _ protecting civilians and Galra Corp property.   


Weeks later and Lance found that he and Katie were no safer from Pidge than when they first escaped the house. Worse, he couldn’t help but feel as if they played directly into her hands.   


Pidge had saved the photo of his family from the apartment fire and somehow had snuck past Katie’s surveillance to deliver it to him. He was grateful, but… couldn't help but feel threatened despite the note. She was either flaunting her position or… genuinely sympathized with him.

He needed to determine which it was.

Ice welled up in his fingertips in panic, begging for release. It wasn’t painful - it never had been - but the guidance was strong, as if it had a mind of its own.   


An icy overhang came forth and shielded him from rubble as the laser hits the brick wall of the neighborhood bakery.   


Lance laid the back of his head to the sidewalk, closing his eyes in exhaustion, chest rising and falling in exaggeration. Hunk was going to be so upset when he next visited - that was his favorite place.   


“You can’t run and hide forever, Icicle-breath!”   


Lance stilled, wheezing in a hopeless attempt to get his breathing under control. The Green Starling still pursued him through the downtown area. His fingers curled around a flash drive in the palm of his hand. She must  _ really  _ want it.

So under no circumstances could he let her have it. He doesn’t know why she wanted it so badly, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good for him  _ or _ the city.   


His ice covered legs seek purchase with the concrete as her machine (redesigned from the ashes with four legs now instead of eight) heavily stepped ever closer, bits of concrete flying out from beyond the alley he’d just come from. He slipped once - twice - before finally standing, palms growing wet and cool before he released a beam of ice, skating away as the machine turns the corner.

His heart pounded loudly in his ears, but it's not enough to ignore the destruction that followed him.

Green lasers shot past him, the bursts of heat nearly unbearable. Lance clenched his teeth, digging deep into his core for more power. It responded, blasting out of his palms and encasing the entire width of the road in ice. He needed to find proper cover and escape ten minutes ago, he couldn’t keep up this chase forever.   


He slid for several minutes, unable to pull back the intensity of his ice blasts under threat of slowing down. Running on solid ground meant the Green Starling caught up to him for certain.   


The supermarket was the last large building in the downtown area, separating it from one of the larger residential districts - where his apartment  _ used _ to be. He squeezed the flash drive, just to remind himself he had it firmly in his grasp. Never again would he bring a fight - and fight was a very loose term for what this was - to where people were living and hiding. His carelessness had nearly gotten his own neighbors killed, just as it killed his family. Lance would not make the same mistake again.

Glass windows extend the length of the entrance side of the building and Lance couldn’t see anyone working. Deserted, good.

Laser fire tears up the asphalt in front of him. Lance screams and falls to his behind, a fresh wave of pain traveling up his boney butt into his thighs. He clenched his teeth and sucked in breath, holding back a cry that might be more satisfying - had Pidge not been right there.   


Her mechanical marvel punctuated its presence through an abandoned car at the edge of the parking lot. Lance growled, gathering what power he had left and concentrating it in the palm of his hand. The beam of ice hit the machine’s newest addition, a force field bubble. As before, it melted near instantaneously, his heart freezing instead. The water slid off, and Starling had full view within seconds.   


“Hand over the flash drive, Icebound,” she said, dangerously serious today. “You don’t know what you have.”   


“I know enough,” he shot back. “I won’t let you use this to hurt innocent people.”   


Ice tingled at his fingertips, fully anticipating an angry reaction. Starling’s surprised gape quickly turned into a furious snarl. “It has nothing to do with you or the city. Give. It. To. Me.”

He had no reason to believe her. No reason to think she wasn’t lying - although - had she ever lied to him? She’d let hostages free when he’d asked and -   


Lance couldn’t take that chance right now.   


“No,” he whispered and directed a weak ice beam directly for her. Not waiting to watch her wipe it off the force field, he jumped to his feet and made a mad dash for the grocery store.   


The automatic glass doors opened for Lance as he dove headfirst into the store, barely turning in time for his back to take the brunt of the landing against a cashier’s shelf. He wasn’t safe yet. After hardly a moment of rest, fear seized his heart as he watched a grey four-door sedan fly through the air directly towards him.   


It crashed through the glass before he had time to scream, and only just managed to shield his head lamely with his arms. The car slammed into the top of the shelf, just above his curled up form, so close that the exhaust pipe scraped across his icy scalp. Lance breathed a sigh of relief, he’d survived another attack!

Out of his peripheral vision, the remainder of the shelf began to tip, falling onto him with a thud. Lance yelps out more in surprise than pain, the layer of ice that surrounded his body taking the brunt of the impact.   


Out of power and nearly out of breath, Lance pushed with all his might to slide the shelf off his lower body. Stuck.   


The Green Starling approached slowly, purposefully. The mech came to a halt at the threshold of the store, digging its long legs into the concrete, rooting it in place. The carriage lowered to ground level, and the villainess herself stalked towards him, her face full of ra--   


Not full of rage. Full of fear? Does she have a conscience after all?

It both relaxed his muscles in relief, but also struck fear into his heart. She had no problem taking hostages, no problem causing mayhem - but moments like this… Lance knew there was something more to her.   


But the flash drive… he couldn’t let her get it. Not until he knew for sure why she saved his family photograph, how she’d known  _ exactly _ what was most important to him amid the growing flames.

“You’re making this too easy, Icebound,” Pidge said. Her use of his actual hero name unsettled him, his fingers becoming clammy and twitchy.   


She held her approach, extending an arm out not to take his, but release hundreds of tiny robots. They scurried from under her sleeve, down her legs and across the floor. They swarmed him, tiny metallic legs tapping sharply on his bare skin between his ice armor.   


“Call them - OW - off, Pi - OW!” Lance yelps as his body lurched involuntarily at every pinch.

“Not until you give me the flash drive,” she insisted. Her gaze was dark, far from the delighted smirks typical of their battles. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Lance hissed as the bots find themselves in places even he doesn’t venture often. “You have a really funny way of showing it,” he glared back. “Is that what you meant when you gave back Lance’s picture?”

Her mouth took a hard line. “I meant what I meant in the note.”

“Whatever your plan is, leave him and Katie out of it.” He winced, catching the nanobots pinching at his skin out of the corner of his eye.

Pidge grinned. “It seems to be working, a constant threat over the head of a close friend. I appreciated your absence last week.”

Lance growled, throwing all of his defiance and frustration her way.

She bent her knees, squatting beside him. “We can end this the hard way or the easy way,” she said close to his ear - so reminiscent of when she took  _ Lance _ captive, but so much more sinister. “If you don’t make up your mind in the next five seconds, I’m paying the house a visit.”

Protect the city. Protect  _ Katie _ .

Like a light switch, ice coursed through his veins, fast as lightning. Lance heard every crackle and felt raw power in every inch of his body. Lance gasps, the influx of raw power too sudden. Ice flowed out of his eyes, threatening to snap his goggles off.   


He couldn’t let that happen. The only thing worse than Pidge using the information on this flash drive was seeing a piece of his true identity. Now that she stalked Lance, Pidge was too smart not to make the connection.

So he let it all go free.   


All the weight on him - the shelf, nanobots, and even his own weight - fly up in a burst of power unlike he’s ever felt before. With a flick of a finger, an ice shard shot from his fingers and imbedded into the far wall. It exploded, bringing down nearly the entire length of the building. Large pieces of the roof crumbled down on top of the concrete.   


A knot twisted in his stomach in realization. He’d never had an attack that powerful before.   


And it terrified him.

He dropped to the ground, barely letting his knees and hands catch him, breath heavy and veins warming. Having superpowers was amazing and Lance had been utterly gleeful to play hero at first, but this… this was something beyond what he needed. It was as if he was just starting to learn to use his powers all over again, the family van turning a corner and--

What were the Galra scientists up to in that lab?

Pidge groaned. Her gloved hands stuck out from under a pile of rubble. Right. Hero time. Experience drove his feet to run. The frostbite was already receding from his fingertips, and the rest of his armor would soon follow. Pidge would be after him in no time and he was vulnerable.   


But he could still get this flash drive back to Galra Corp. Surely it was the plans for the city reconstruction project they’d been talking about on the news. Pidge could cause havoc with them.   


“You won’t get far! Stop right there!” Pidge demanded.

Lance huffed. Running was... very hard right now. His vision blurred, and in a lapse of concentration, he tripped over himself. Cool air pricked at his skin. His body had miraculously found the frozen foods section.  


He scrambled to his feet and ripped open a door. The cold presence was soothing and tiny crystals formed over his skin once more as his fingers laced the cold metal shelves. Invigorated, he clenched his teeth and shot a blast towards the corner of the aisle, just as Pidge rounded it to face him.   


He kept one hand in the freezer, the other pointed at Pidge with icy energy glowing around it. So they stood in a standoff, tension thick enough Lance could bite through.

“I am not in the mood to kid around anymore,” she snarls first. “I  _ need _ that information. I’ll ask one last time.” Pidge holds out her hand, expectantly. “Give it to me.”

Lance could see his breath out in front of him, the foggy mist growing thick with each fast breath. He needed to be careful with his next move.   


“We can’t keep doing this, Pidge,” he said. “Please stop. You’ve listened to me before, listen to me now.”

Pidge unholstered a blaster, a smaller and less powerful version of the laser on her riding robot, and pointed the barrel at him from down the aisle. “I will wait here all day if I have to. You’re running out of juice. Give it up.”

Lance bit his lip. She was right, it was only a matter of time before even the cold of the freezer failed to chill his core and his identity would be exposed.   


He couldn’t stay, he couldn’t flee, and he couldn’t hand over the information to Pidge.   


He hoped the Galra Corp executives would forgive him considering the circumstances.   


Lance holds the flash drive up high. “If you want this so bad, you can have it!” Ice spread across his arm from the freezer and up into his opposite hand and also the flash drive.   


Pidge inhaled sharply and clasped the gun with both hands, holding it high. “Don’t you dare!”

Blood pumped fast through his rapidly beating heart. Whatever happened to him, the city would be safe.   


The device crumbled in his hand.   


He let the broken pieces fall to the ground. Relief in keeping the city safe for a while longer lasted only a moment. Pidge’s face contorted into something of horror, her eyes wide and hands shaky. Her mouth wobbled, as if she couldn’t find the words to say.   


The words she chose he did not expect.   


“M-matt.” Her eyes welled with tears, arms dropping limply to her sides.   


Everything about her made Lance’s stomach twist into a knot. This was not the reaction to a plan gone awry.   


What had he  _ done _ ?

Lance does nothing as Pidge stumbled forward and dropped to her knees. She picked up the tiny pieces of the hard drive one by one, repeating  _ no, no, no _ , over and over with the most desperate voice he had ever heard her utter.

His mouth was dry, Lance realized. He was gaping at the scene in front of him - the scene that was his fault. He had really messed up, hadn’t he?

“Pidge, I-” he started to apologize.

The Green Starling stood in a flurry, gun aimed at his chest. The rage on her snarled face struck more fear in his heart than any fight they’d had.   


“How could you? I could have  _ found _ him.” she accused. Her hands shook, finger wobbling dangerously over the trigger.   


Lance raised his hands. He had to be non threatening. If she pulled the trigger he and the entire store would go up in flames. “Pidge put down the gun. You’re - you’re not - I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“I told you it was harmless! You didn’t believe me!” she yelled, adjusting her grip on the gun - aimed for his face now.

All reason flew out the window. “Of course I didn’t! You’re always trying to kill me for interfering in your schemes. Galra Corp is working hard to make our city the best and - “   


“Galra Corp is a lie!” Pidge interrupted. “They have you and everyone in this stupid city fooled. Do you ever even stop to  _ think _ about how you got your powers? About why Galra Corp even had those kinds of chemicals on hand?”

Lance frowned. Despite the few bad apples within security at Galra Corp, he’d always held the scientists and executives in high regard. “I’m sure there’s a good explanation,” he said lamely. Deep inside, her words struck a chord of doubt.   


Despite the media’s glowing praise and all the good they’ve done for the city, their willingness to cover up for their disruptive security force was troubling.

Was his entire existence as a hero a lie?   


Pidge laughs humorlessly. “Of course you’d think so.” She clenches her teeth on her lip. “You ruined my best chance in-” she sniffed, body trembling on the verge of tears and her voice lumpy, full of sobs. She pinched her eyes shut. When she opened them, Lance was greeted to fire and anger. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.”

None. Pidge was the villain and he was the hero. Heroes were the ones with morals, not villains. Pidge just destroyed everything to get what she wanted -   


But she never killed anyone.   


“Because you’ve never killed anyone in your path,” he repeated out loud. The revelation opened his mind, recalling new details to their fights. “Even when you took m-Lance hostage - you were never going to hurt anyone. You never do. It’s always,” Lance dropped his arms in shock, “it’s always Galra Corp.”

Pidge shook, red in the face with rage. Her finger squeezed on the trigger and Lance braced for pain or death.   


Instead, Lance is on his back for the fourth time tonight. Ice cream pails piled up around him and the back of the freezer crashed down upon his head. Weakened by the heat of Pidge’s gun, the metal melted. Dazed from the hit, he’s barely conscious his icy power are also melting, along with the ice cream and other frozen novelties - the freezer had become a sauna - and he was trapped.   


And  _ sticky _ . Oh quiznak not  _ again _ . Was today only for reliving the day he got his powers?

Pidge’s boots stomped against the upturned freezer, demanding his attention. She leaned in and glared down at him with a surprisingly neutral face. She hadn’t killed him. She  _ hadn’t killed him _ .   


Yet.

“You’ve got me,” Lance said. Emboldened, it was time to call her bluff. “My powers are fading fast. A few more minutes and you’ll -”

“Stop,” she interrupted. Her hands curled up into a fist. “Don’t -  _ don’t _ \- “ she struggled to find words, eyes shut tight, before her face relaxed. Her eyes open, revealing a quiet shine. “You saved my life at the apartment fire. We’re even now.”

Lance breathed a sigh of relief.   


Her voice hardens again. “But if you  _ ever _ get in my way again - I won’t hesitate to take you out.”

She left.   


Lance waited until the stomps of her robot were but a whisper in his ear and his icy armor had melted over his skin before wiggling himself out of the sticky mess and climbing out of his prison.

Pidge showed him mercy today. Regardless of her reasons for that and returning his family photo, she’d taken that next step from not harming civilians to sparing his life.   


A grin tugged up on his face. This he could work with.   


~~~~~

Buses and taxis never ran after a fight. Safety reasons, the city council said. Also because roads were impassable.   


So Lance walked, giving him far too much time to contemplate the burst of power he’d experienced back at the grocery store. He shivered at the reminder. The power to overpower a group in a fight was one thing, to destroy half a building was another. He needed to get it under control and find out how it happened, before he became the one who needed to be stopped.

He couldn’t wait to get home and sleep instead.

It was weird to think that it hadn’t been a month and he already considered Katie’s home his own. He’d called the apartment home as well, but really it was only a place to sleep and store his belongings.   


Living with Katie was a fresh start. He had someone to share chores with and appliances that worked without constant maintenance. This gave him more free time to get articles written, and in turn, time for entertainment, which he shared with Katie.   


They’d settled into a routine, practically like a married couple. Unwanted heat invaded his cheeks at the mere thought, at odds with his icy core and making his stomach churn, but a stupid smile wouldn’t come off his face. Katie worked on her school projects while Lance submitted his work to the paper - perhaps he’d finish this internship with a job after all. Then they’d cook supper and spend the evening watching movies and playing video games, evenings he was finally able to enjoy because the Green Starling had been noticeably less active since the fire.   


Life was good.

Tonight he’d have to turn in early though. Between the chase, the fight, and the walk home, his legs wobbled like jelly and he barely had the strength to lift his arm and turn the doorknob. A warm bed and comfortable pajamas called to him like an angel chorus.   


Sobs greeted his ears instead when he walked across the threshold.   


Katie was sitting on the floor - using the couch as a backrest rather than as intended - next to the now  _ dismantled _ Mercury Gameflux in front of the television. Her shoulders shuddered with each sniffle, arms wrapped around legs that she held close to her chest and face hidden in her knees.   


Lance had never seen her more devastated.   


He didn’t bother taking off his dusty shoes, even knowing he’d have to clean up the mess later.   


“Katie,” he said hoarsely, heart breaking every second he watched the scene. He rounded the couch and sat next to her on the floor. His arm hovered over her back.   


She looked up at him, her eyes red and brimming with tears. “L-Lance? You’re h-home early?”

“What’s wrong?” he asked. On second thought, better to avoid the questions for now. “Obviously something. Let me hug you. You look like you need one right now.” He wrapped his arms around her shoulders before she could say no.

Katie hiccuped but doesn’t push him away. “You shouldn’t… I don’t deserve this.”

“My sympathy? My comfort? Katie, you’re my  _ friend _ .” He held her closer, dangerously nestling his nose into her messy wet hair. Her shampoo gave the fresh scent of spring flowers and Lance pulled away, afraid he might get too comfortable. Katie was upset, he had to focus on that.   


She looked into his eyes, her own carrying emotions he couldn’t quite name, sorrow certainly, anguish, and… guilt?

“But I - “ She stopped herself before speaking further, biting her lips before she found the words she wanted. “I haven’t been a good friend. I haven’t even been a good  _ person _ to you. I’ve been so wrapped up in looking for my family…” Fresh tears welled up in her eyes, lip wobbling.   


_ Her family _ , Lance thought in terror, the one he’d promised to help find as a hero and a friend - because he  _ wanted _ to.   


He removed his arms from her, now it was his turn to be wracked with guilt. He’d been so busy he hadn’t even stopped to consider she was still hurting. She’d probably been working herself thin to make up for the time she’d suffered as a captive.   


“That’s why Iverson told you to lay off the case, I’m such an idiot,” he said, hands clenched.

Katie sucked in a sharp breath.

“I- I should be the one apologizing,” he continues. “I promised to help and here you are trudging on bravely without me. I’m the one who hasn’t been a great friend.”

Katie’s mouth gaped, her eyes wide. “No, Lance that’s not it. You’ve been nothing but helpful. You keep me  _ sane _ .   


Lance smiled, now he’s getting somewhere. “Tell me what you need. Food? Massage? Silent company?” Feeling impish, his lips curl further up his face. “Someone to kick your butt in Phantasm Melee?”

Katie frowned, and Lance’s gaze fell back into the disassembled Mercury Gameflux.   


He gulped.  _ Good going, Lance. Why don’t you get it over with and actually shoot yourself in the foot.   
_

“S-Sorry about the system. I had a t-theory with the selfie mechanism to try and s-salvage some information on a corrupt hard drive.” She wiped her tears away with a pajama sleeve. “It didn’t work.”

“Is… that why you’re… ?”

“Upset?” She nodded, her face contorting in anguish. “I had a chance to find my brother today, Lance!” She shouted, sitting up on her knees. “And it was all ruined because of - “ she stopped, arms quaking in rage.   


Guilt gnaws at his stomach. The destruction the fight caused… “Because of Icebound, right?”

Katie’s eyes grow to saucers and her breathing quickened.“H-how did you...?”

“You don’t have to hold back just because he’s my friend,” he said, the lie so easy now after much practice. “There’s a lot of destruction out there. The city will be busy cleaning up for weeks.”

She calmed, the fire in her eyes extinguished in an instant. “Y-yeah,” she said, sitting back on the carpet.   


They sat in silence, thought it’s not comfortable by any means. Katie’s brows furrowed in thought, and Lance couldn’t decide if he should say something or not.

“Lance,” Katie said, breaking the silence with a firm tone. “When the city has to clean up after a battle… do you ever wonder how they repair everything so fast.”

He hadn’t, actually. He was always so busy causing the mess he never thought about the cleanup. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It’s because Galra Corp lends them resources,” Katie continued without missing a beat. Her eyes grow steely. “Usually money, but also manpower and even experiments still under trial,” she balled her hands into fists, digging into the fabric of her pajamas, “like the one that took my family.”

Like the one that… Lance’s heart breaks.   


He must look it too, because Katie hastily continues, “They’re still alive, I - I think,” she stumbles, eyes fixated on the far wall. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean - you have it worse. I’m going to get mine back.” Her eyes go wide. “I didn’t mean it like that! Oh quiznak, I’m so sorry.”   


Katie buried her face in her knees.   


Lance is hardly fazed. Rather, guilt eats at him. He _ did _ lose his family and he couldn’t get them back no matter what. But though these powers were the hated cause of it, they were also the reason he could protect others - his neighbors at the apartment complex, his classmates, … Katie.

It was fate that had brought them together. He’d find her family using these powers of his so that she wouldn’t share his lonely future.   


He scooted closer to her, shoulders brushing with hers, and lay a hand on her shaking fist.   


She looked him up and down in bewilderment. “Lance? What are you - ?”

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I promised I’d help you find your family and I haven’t been. From now on,” he said as sincerely as he could muster, raising a hand to swear his oath, “the search for your family has my undivided attention.”

“It-it does?” It’s as if she couldn’t believe it.   


“I know what it’s like, and I don’t want to see you suffer anymore,” he said, but he really begged her forgiveness, for failing to live up to being a hero for her. “Tell me what you need and if it’s in my power, I’ll do it.

“Anything?” she repeated, almost unsure, a far cry from her typical self.   


Lance nodded. “Anything.” Maybe she’d want some garlic knots, they’d be warm and comforting to  _ him _ too, and great with lasagna. He could heat up last night’s supper.   


Katie scrunched and twisted her face, as if debating with herself. Lance found he couldn’t look away from her discerning stare.   


“I… have something to tell you, Lance. I haven’t been honest with you and you deserve to know.”

Lance winced. That hit too close to home. He wasn’t ready to tell her, she was still in danger from Pidge. If she knew he was Icebound, she’d become that much more valuable a hostage. By keeping his secret at least he could keep her safe.   


“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to,” he insisted softly, squeezing her hands in comfort.   


Katie relaxed, shoulders slumping in something like relief. “I hate Galra Corp for taking my family from me,” she confessed. “First my mother, sending her on a business trip that she never returned from. Then my father and brother worked longer hours, before suddenly they never came home…” Katie takes a deep breath. “There’s something really going on in there, and sometimes… sometimes I’m  _ happy _ Green Starling fights with Icebound, because the more resources they spend cleaning up the city to maintain appearances, the fewer resources they have to run questionable experiments. The less likely someone ends up like me.”

_ Experiments like the one that gave me powers _ , Lance thinks and supposed that wasn’t a bad wish. Selfish as it was, Katie had a good reason for it.   


_ They have you and everyone in this stupid city fooled! _

Could Pidge actually have a point?   


“What about civilians?” He worried aloud. “People are terrified  _ every day  _ they might get caught in the crosshairs. You aren’t the only one with a family.”

“I know,” Katie snapped quickly, her snarl tickled with familiarity before she sighed, features softening, eyes closed in surrender to his point. “I have a few annoying classmates that might deserve a pounding though,” she finished dryly.   


Lance laughed. “Don’t we all.” His heart welled up with excitement. “There’s this other intern at the paper - we can’t stand each other’s guts. His mullet has this life of its own and I keep sticking office supplies in it. One day,”  _ snort _ “I put a pencil in it and he still hadn’t realized by the end of the day!”

Katie covered her mouth, but a whine of laughter still escaped, her eyes dancing with mirth where they’d been so angry not even a tick ago.   


“Here I thought you were just this super nice guy,” she said, breaking into another fit of giggle-snorts.

_ Super is right _ , Lance thought humorously. “Don’t worry, I’m only terrible to Keith and Pidge.”

Katie frowned, “Pidge? Like when she captured you?”

Panic rose in his chest - was he really going to be this careless? “Of-of course! She - I bet you were a handful for her too. Probably outsmarted her with your own inventions, huh?”

Katie inhaled sharply. “Right!” she said quickly. “She kept me well out of reach of her lab after I modified her nanobots.”

“The ones she stole from you in the first place, right?” He playfully nudges her shoulder with his own. “Pidge isn’t so smart. I bet Icebound will defeat her any day now that she’s cut off from your brain!”

Katie shifted uncomfortably and fear shot through Lance's gut that he’d strayed to the wrong subject again.   


“I wouldn’t be too sure,” she said, almost indignantly. “Pidge is pretty smart on her own, better than me I think.”

Lance pffted. “Please. I’ve seen her bots and yours in action, and yours were  _ way _ cooler.”

Katie’s cheeks turned light pink, and Lance felt heat rush into his own, heart bubbling with warm happy feelings in the way she took a compliment.   


He was crushing hard and he  _ liked _ it.   


He coughed. “Can I… get you something to eat? My mom used to make me garlic knots when I was feeling down. I’ve got some in the freezer - they’re not homemade but - “

“It sounds great, Lance.” She smiled for him, warm and fond.   


She had him wrapped around her finger.   


“I’m going to fix the Gameflux,” she continued. “It’s not so far gone we can’t play Melee tonight. I think… that’s just what I need.”

Her smile was perfect, like a sunset on the water.

Lance grinned, heart soaring with delight. “Anything.”

~~~~~

_ GAME OVER _   


Lance let the controller drop to the carpet and leaned back against the couch. “I surrender. Tonight is not my night.”

Katie snickered gleefully and leaned into him, resting her head on his chest. Lance could feel his heart rate skyrocket.   


“You were still out pretty late, and I’ve made you play for hours,” she said ruefully. “I had you at a disadvantage.”

Lance pinched the bridge of his nose. He was tired, between the early morning swim meet he’d covered at the high school and the fight with Pidge.   


But Katie needed this and he’d promised.   


“One more round,” he said holding a single finger up, “then I’m calling it a night.”

Katie shrugged, all smiles as she sat up and chose a new arena. “Your loss.”

A quick bite would get him through this. He nabbed the last nugget of garlic knots - (long since cooled off) from the crumb-filled plate in front of them, then went about selecting his fighter for this last round.   


Usually, he was extra careful not to use Chillout - the character with ice powers, afraid it would draw too much attention to himself. But it was late. He doubted Katie would care or notice.   


He yawned as she selected Circuit, the hacker-buffer unit. She self-healed. Lance winced. He could too - well, Chillout could anyway, that was a power he was keen to see if Icebound could unlock.   


This might be a long battle.   


Katie opened with infecting the gun turrets, a common strategy for Circuit. Lance made sure to freeze the one in the bottom left corner. He wasn’t without ideas.   


He made several ice walls along the bottom of the screen, trading blows with Circuit.   


“I dare you to stop and heal,” Katie said. She rolled onto her knees, moving her body in sync with her character.   


“You’re not exactly at full health either,” he countered without looking her way. It was nearly time to spring his trap… just get her a little more to the left and…

He punched the turret he’d turned icy. He spammed the y button -  _ heal, heal, heal, please heal _ \- until the turret exploded. Katie’s character’s health dropped to zero, while Chillout maintained a sliver of it thanks to the constant healing.

_ GAME OVER _   


This time Katie dropped her controller. “Wow,” she said in amazement. “I’ve never seen anyone pull that off with Chillout. He’s  _ definitely _ your best character. How come you never play him?”

Lance gaped, struggling for an answer. “Well… I just never — “

She gasps, eyes wide with fear? Realization? Terror surged through his heart. Had this been the last costly slip up?

“Lance your face! It’s  _ bleeding _ !” she cried in horror.   


She’s looking at his right side. Lance gently placed his fingertips to his temple. Sure enough, there’s a mix of fresh and dried blood under his hair.   


All he can do is chuckle. He hadn’t done his post fight checkup. He probably had scrapes bleeding under his jeans. “Ha. Well, guess this explains why I’m so tired. You win tonight on account of my blood loss.”

She pointed at him sternly. “You wait right there. Apply some pressure.” Katie grabbed his hand roughly and it sent a flutter in his heart despite himself. She sandwiched her hands around his head, forcing his own hand over the bleed.   


“You’re going to play nurse for me?” He joked with a raised eyebrow as she left the living room.   


“I am if you’re not going to!” She fired back from the bathroom.   


Katie returned with a first aid kit that put  _ his _ to shame.   


His jaw dropped as she set it down between them and clicked it open, revealing three tiers of triage equipment. Lance whistled. He needed to get himself one of these.   


“Disinfect the thing first,” she said, handing him a bottle of liquid. “I’ll get a headwrap ready. You should probably see a doctor tomorrow.”

Lance groaned and took both the bottle and a cotton swab from her. Though he couldn’t heal himself on demand, he’d be better by morning thanks to his powers.   


The last thing he needed was snooping medical professionals.   


“I’ve had worse,” he made the mistake of saying. “I’ll be fine.” And he told the truth.

But Katie doesn’t know about his powers.   


She gasped. “Worse?” She exclaimed. “Worse than this? What did you  _ do _ ?”

So he told the truth again.   


“I got caught up in a fight with Pidge,” he said, soaking some liquid into the swab. “Total accident. I broke my arm when she first showed up a year ago.” He laughed without humor. He’d not had his powers for long back then. He’d been stupid, arrogant in the days before his family died, and could only type with one hand for a couple of days before his powers started to heal him. It’d been the start of his downward spiral at work - obsessed with figuring out his powers and stopping Pidge like a hero.   


Some hero he was.   


Katie blinked, mouth agape and downcast, looking astonished. She unfurled some bandage wraps, rolling a length of it onto her hand from the roll, hands shaking as she does so. “But Pidge doesn’t hurt anyone. I - I mean she never hurt me, was never cruel. I don’t think she’d break someone’s arm, not in a right state of mind anyway.”

Lance rolled his eyes and winced as he put the alcohol rub to his wound -  _ ouch _ that hurt. “She seemed pretty happy to rub it in when she captured me,” he hissed.

“Look, I spent a long time with her,” Katie said. “She’s got to look the part and she’s desperate.”

His eyebrow rose. “Desperate? To ruin Galra Corp?”

“Yes,” Katie insists with more confidence than Lance was expecting from a secondhand account.

Lance was tempted to ask why. Katie has been a wealth of information when it came to Pidge, but never had he thought to ask about motivation.   


Why did Pidge hate Galra Corp so much?

Katie sat up and scooted closer on her knees, her face painfully close to his own. She stopped, locking gazes with him for a pregnant pause before reaching around and wrapping his wound tight.

Their cheeks brushed, warmth flowing from her to him.   


“It’s uh, pretty tight,” he said awkwardly.   


She tied it off and backed away with a wry smile. “Sports writers don’t need their brains anyway,” she teased. She frowned, touching his cheek so softly his knees become weak. “Your cheek is cold. You really should rest.”

“I-I will,” he gulped, transfixed by her bright hazel eyes. “Thanks for being such a great nurse.” He winked.

He  _ winked _ . Lance screamed inside. This wasn’t right. He had a job to protect her, feelings like this would put her in danger and -   


That was the problem. So long as this crush lingered, he was not going to be able to think clearly, compromised by emotions he couldn’t control.   


He might as well act on it.   


Katie snorted. “I don’t have the best bedside manner. I’m going to make you walk to your room.”

“And you could lift me?” He teased.   


“I have robots that could do that,” Katie said. “I’d end up dragging you there.”

Heart in his throat, Lance responded, “maybe I’d like that.”

Of all the  _ stupid _ flirts that had ever left his mouth.   


Katie was silent for much longer than he liked, her expression unreadable.   


“... I’m not tucking you in.”

Emboldened, he slowly stood. “I won the last game,” he reminded her.   


“Okay,” she said. Her voice was firm, but her eyes seemed as if they were somewhere else.   


“Okay?” He asked, stunned. “I was just joking. If you don’t want to - “

“I do,” She insisted. “It’s the least I can do for you.” Katie took his arm and draped it around her shoulders, squeezing his hand with hers.   


He leaned into her, for the first time since he received his powers, enjoying the warmth of another human being.   


They walked slowly, and Lance  _ was _ tired and grateful for the support.   


Katie didn’t bother with the lights, and helped him sit on his bed in the cover of darkness. Lance plopped down on top of his covers and closed his eyes, snuggled his head onto his pillow, sighing in contentment. His muscles melted in relief, finally and truly unwinding after a long day.

Katie crossed her arms, skeptical. “I can’t tuck you in like that.”

“Dun’ need it,” Lance mumbled. His eyelids refused to open, heavy now that he’s comfortable.

Katie sighed and a moment later a weight is on top of him. His fingers moved across the smooth threads, it’s the throw pillow from the chair in the room.   


Diligently, she tucks him in, pulling the blanket up to his shoulders. Lance wasn’t sure if he was imagining the feel of her face lingering over his - he opened them.

She was - her face hovering over his, studying him as if he were her next school project. Her furrowed brows looked so familiar, something more recent than last week’s test preparation.

“Is… there something on my face?” he asked sleepily.   


Katie smiled, chuckling softly. “You’re a puzzle, Lance, that’s all. I like puzzles.”

Lance grinned, that warm bubbly feeling that his cold core doesn’t mind was back in his chest. “Good, ladies like an enigma,” was all he had the energy to say as he closed his eyes again.   


There’s a pause, and a soft pressure on the end of his eyebrow for only a moment. “I’m so sorry, Lance,” she says softly. “For everything.”   


His nose twitches and his brows furrow. What does Katie have to be sorry for? She sounded so  _ sorrowful _ . If anything, he should be the one apologizing, keeping his identity and activities secret from her; still not totally sure if he’s protecting her by staying here or putting her in even more danger.   


But he couldn’t tell her quite yet. Maybe an early birthday gift would lift her spirits and provide a slight change of pace for the evenings.   


Her footsteps are light, Lance doesn’t open his eyes again until the door is closed.

Lance rolled his head to the precious family picture on his nightstand. The one he would no longer have if not for his nemesis.

“You’d like her Mom,” he whispered. He thought of Katie, but the image of Pidge blurred on top of it and he was too tired to care.   


“You’re right, I’m not trying hard enough,” he mumbled into his pillow. “I know she’s good at heart, I just don’t know what else to say.”

_ “Have you tried listening?” _

_ “It was Luis’ fault!” a small Lance yelled, an accusatory finger pointed at his older brother. “He won’t let me play with the boogie board!” _

Lance remembered Luis giggling as he bounced up and down on the waves, and feeling soured and betrayed.   


Then his mother’s warm embrace. Lance held onto the moment with vigor, doing all he could to not let the memory progress, to dwell only on his mom’s hug.   


_ “Luis only just got to play with it after lunch. Let him have his turn and I’m sure he’d be glad to let you play with it.” _

Lance sighed. There’s always two sides to a story, and he hardly knew Pidge’s. It was time he found out, one way or another.

He slept and dreamed of taking the picture, his family still alive, and Katie’s arms wrapped around his waist as they all yell ‘Cheese!’.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little more angst and confusion for Pidge with an extra helping guilt as the bad guys plot.

Pidge finished cleaning up, mind whirling. Images of the fight, the rollercoaster of emotions and then tending to Lance. The more she thought about it the more Icebound and Lance’s faces began blurring together, the sound of their voices overlapping. As she closed the dishwasher she rubbed her eyes. It was late and the day had been beyond draining. She climbed into bed and drifted into chaotic dreams.

She woke the next day groggy and dragged herself into the kitchen for coffee. She was normally tired after a fight with Icebound, but this had been so much more. She decided today was going to be a day off. Nothing but relaxing. Sifting through her games, she finally decided on a brainless RPG she had beaten twice already and some ice cream would be the best cure. As she went back into the kitchen she noticed a note on the breakfast bar.

_Thanks for being such a great nurse last night. I’m feeling a lot better and the bleeding has stopped. Once I took a shower this morning, it was obvious it wasn’t as bad as it looked last night. I hope today is a lot better for you and this helps a little. It was supposed to be for your birthday, but I figured you needed it more right now._

Under the note was a copy of the new Killbot Phantasm II. 

Tears welled up in her eyes as a memory surfaced. 

_“Happy birthday Pidge. Here’s my present and just so you know, I’m going to totally kick your butt in it!”_

_“In your dreams Matt!”_

Pidge wiped away the tears, grabbed her peanut butter fudge ice cream and booted up the game. Single player mode had an engrossing story and soon she so focused on the game she didn’t notice the time. It was only when her stomach complained loudly that she realized it was almost dinner time. Checking her phone she saw a text from Lance telling her that he would be back a little later. They needed a few things from the store and since the closest one was mobbed because of the destruction of the other supermarket, he had to go to the one on the other side of town. Poking around in the cabinets showed that she had the ingredients for chili, she decided that it was only fair that she make dinner tonight. By the time Lance got home, the chili was done simmering and she was pulling sourdough rolls out of the oven. 

Lance sighed dreamily as he began putting away the groceries. “You’ve been holding out on me. This smells amazing!”

“Hold off on that opinion until you actually try it. There’s some cheese, sour cream and I found some hot sauce, although it’s probably not hot enough for you.” She grinned as she scooped the food into bowls.

Lance took a bite and closed his eyes in bliss. “I don’t know on what planet you think this is terrible, but it definitely not this one. You even made rolls!”

Pidge laughed as Lance enthusiastically tore one apart and dunked it into the chili. “Don’t get too excited. They were just frozen ones.”

“I don’t care, you’ve been holding out on me and this is perfect. I demand you make this again!” 

“We’ll see. This was also a thank you.”

At his confused expression, she added quietly, “I found your note and the game. Thank you. I really needed that today. The game is amazing. I can’t wait to try multiplayer!”

Lance’s look softened, “It’s the least I could do. I’m going to try to do some digging for you about your family. I already started looking over records but there’s not a lot to go on.”

Pidge stared at him in astonishment. “You… Really? You’re willing to do that for me?”

“I said I would. I don’t have as much clout as a real reporter, but I do have a few connections. I made a promise and I keep my promises.”

Lance was almost knocked over by a ball of Pidge landing in his lap. She wrapped him in a tight hug and began to cry, “Thank you. You have no idea what this means to me.”

He held her for a few moments until she pulled away, cheeks dusted pink. He only gave her a brief squeeze before pulling away and announcing that he would clean up. 

Pidge went to pick up some of her mess from earlier in the living room and accidentally stepped on the remote, changing the channel. She stood transfixed as the news showed another interview with the protestors who had begun to have a bigger presence as the shipment date grew closer. Maybe stealing the chemicals wasn’t the answer. She could blow up the ship. But that may cause more damage. She decided to research the chemicals more and began to formulate a plan.

Lance called, “I brought something home for dessert, do you want it now or should we save it for tomorrow?”

“Hmmmm? Oh. Well, I guess it depends on what it is.”

“I think you’d like it,” he pulled out some of the strawberry shortcakes from Cafe Altea. 

“How did…?”

“Sal was at the store too and insisted on giving me a ride home. He was taking the leftovers home but said that his family was pretty sick of the shortcake. Apparently, he doesn’t like to leave the desserts for more than 2 days, even though they are still fine. He has this whole thing about making fresh food but not wasting it. Normally, there’s only enough for a serving or two but the shortcake hasn’t been selling as well. I suggested making mini Key Lime pie tarts, with real Key Lime of course.”

“Can you even _get_ real Key Lime here?”

“Yeah, one of their distributors can get them a good price. Sal told me that I had to be the guinea pig since he’s not as familiar with it.” 

Pidge pouted, “I wanna test the tarts too.”

“It was an open invitation, you’re welcome to come as well.” Lance looked far too pleased with himself, so Pidge stole a large strawberry off of his plate. “Hey! Alright, I guess I deserved that. Hey, you’re the mad scientist around here.” Pidge raised her eyebrows at him, worry pooling in her stomach. “If you were an evil genius villain... hypothetically of course, where would you put a lair?”

Pidge, decided to play it off and looked amused, “Oooooh, I have a lair? That would be so cool! Hmmmm. Well, I would put it someplace so obvious it’s not.”

Lance chuckled, “So you would put it in the Computer Lab?”

“Hey! They have some of the BEST equipment I’ve ever seen!” she scowled at him playfully, then smiled, "Well, I'm off to build my laser death ray!"

Lance laughed, "Okay, don’t hurt yourself with the power tools again. I’ll yell for you at nine! The new episode of Mysterious Mysteries is on."

  


Pidge spent the next few hours digging through records of the list of chemicals that were in the ship’s manifest. The protest groups had gotten a hold of them and published them everywhere. She was having a hard time seeing the link between them. There were a few highly toxic and flammable ones, but nothing that seemed to point to a use of combining them. The toxicity levels made her wary of trying to blow up the ship. Stealing it would be hard though. She decided to see if her bot had been discovered. She knew it was a bit foolhardy to attempt to hack the Galra so soon after her last escapade, but if they hadn’t found her bot, it wouldn’t matter. 

Pidge was able to connect right away. She had made sure that tracing her would be difficult but was still intent on finding only the information she needed and getting out. Security measures had been definitely been ramped up, but still no match for her. After a few intentional false starts, she was able to pull up the real requests. It turned out that the cargo on the ship was harmless. Most of it would be sold to the city to help with rebuilding, or manufacture of cleaners, others were going to different labs for basic uses. The one chemical everyone was so upset about was actually a very small amount, under heavy guard and going directly to the college research center under strict guidelines. She found the file with the list of chemicals that Haxus was interested in and scribbled out a copy, then compared it to the shipment list. Again, only the most common ones were on the current shipment. Back in the requisitions folder, she found a hidden file with the rest of the chemicals ordered and slated to be delivered tomorrow night. She set the bot to continue to monitor files and logged off after making sure it looked like she had been hacking from somewhere in Russia. 

She took a closer look at the list of chemicals Haxus was using and what was being delivered tomorrow night. Pidge finally saw why he had a lab rigged in Lance’s apartment. The component he had been trying to make was close enough to meth that it didn’t look out of place for someone to be coming and going with weird containers or if anything went wrong, it would look like what happened and not an experiment for creating a rare chemical. It looked like they were trying to concentrate the elements from her father’s research and she wasn’t about to let that happen. A few commands from her bot would corrupt those notes beyond repair. As for the delivery, a rampaging Green Startling could make short work of it, since the shipment was volatile but didn’t look to be toxic. She just had to be sure that there were no other copies. If they had handwritten notes, there wasn’t much she could do about it, but this would slow them down a bit. 

Just then she heard Lance yell that the show was about to start and if she didn’t hurry he was going to eat all the popcorn. She threw everything in her desk drawer and ran up to spend time with Lance. Tomorrow night there wouldn’t be any time to relax since Green Starling had work to do.

~~~~~

The next evening she pulled out her notes and made sure that her bot accessed all the files with those chemicals. Then she started a program for it to methodically corrupt the data before blowing itself up, taking out the main server. That would give her plenty of time to disrupt the delivery. 

She quickly texted Lance, _Had to take care of some stuff on campus, I’ll be home late._ Then left to stop the delivery truck.

Pidge was a little unnerved that the delivery was to be made at the warehouse Throk worked at. It was far enough away from neighborhoods that it wouldn’t pose a problem for her to be destructive, but it was close enough to Lance’s old apartment that she felt another pang of regret. Shaking her head, she cleared her mind. _Time to focus_ , _Lance is safe at home and this won’t take long._ She moved the cloaked mech closer to the building, sent in some microbots and watched for the truck. Listening through the small mic it had, she heard the beginning chaos. A wide grin split her face - she had managed to take out the whole server array when the nanobot blew itself up. There was a mad scramble at the warehouse as some of the scientists tried to back up what they on their desktops and other programs, fearing it was a full-scale attack. Experiments were suspended as guards and other employees tried to make sure everything stayed stable. The head of the site was barking orders, trying to regain control or at least get a few people ready for the incoming delivery. 

The delivery truck was closer, she could see the headlights. She wanted to make sure it was closer to the warehouse before revealing herself. If she caused enough chaos then people would run away and she could just blow all of it up. She uncloaked as it drove by and began a show of stomping after it, making sure to knock down a few power lines, and kicking abandoned cars into light posts. The smaller the chance of innocent people getting hurt, the better. 

The truck careened into the loading dock and the guards leaped out. After a few ineffective warning shots, they ran off. Throk and a few other guards took over the firefight, trying to protect the truck. Pidge let the forcefield do it’s work while she concentrated on firing the emerald colored lasers near everyone. She managed to knock several off their feet as the pavement buckled with the shots. Stomping closer was enough to encourage others to run away. The microbot’s microphone picked up more chaos from inside the warehouse but it sounded like it was turning into an evacuation. She sent the bot around the inner perimeter and found an empty wall to shoot at, causing it to crumble. The extra benefit of Throk getting hit by a few small pieces of the wall was an added bonus. 

Suddenly, ice blasts pinned one of the mech’s legs. Pidge grumbled in aggravation. She had planned on being done before the icicle breath showed up, she wasn’t really sure that she wanted to see him just yet. The last few people from inside the warehouse had left and there were only a few guards. Time to make short work of this. She shot a few blasts to slow him down. Icebound dodged, as she expected him, but managed to swerve and punched at the frozen leg causing it to buckle a bit. He pulled back for another punch, but she was ready. _That move seemed very familiar_. She grabbed him with one of the other legs and tossed him into the crumbling wall. Then aiming carefully, Pidge fired directly at the truck, causing it to go up in flames. Icebound jumped up and began trying to wall it off with his ice. She debated on letting him extinguish the flames while she finished smashing the warehouse, or to just finish off the truck. She opted for smashing the warehouse. She stomped over, aimed at the far wall, just behind the truck and blasted it down. Her microbot skittered up into her mech and began transferring schematics. Overall the facility had very little in it, a few minor experiments and the bot confirmed everyone had already evacuated. Before she could get further several ice blasts streaked by her. 

“What the hell, Starling? What did they do to piss you off this time? Or is this because of what happened the other day?”

Pidge gritted her teeth, “It’s none of your business and what do you care anyway? Just go away.”

“Only if you promise to stop destroying everything!”

“Not going to happen.”

“Then I guess I’m staying!” 

Icebound tried to pin her mech’s legs together, but she had enough. She grabbed him tightly, pinning his arms to his sides, and brought him up to almost eye level. “I said, BUTT OUT!” and threw him as hard as she could into the building. He managed to flip around and blast back toward her. He barrelled right into her, knocking her from the mech, and as they fell a giant explosion rocked the area. The delivery truck had practically vaporized and the force knocked them flat on the ground directly in front of her mech. The warehouse tilted at a began to fall on them. There was barely time to react but once again, Icebound wrapped them in an ice barrier. The force of the mech crashing on them, the heat from the fire and the rubble from the warehouse was causing it to groan dangerously. 

“We... gotta… stop… meeting… like... this.”

“I told you to butt out.”

“You… need… to… stop… blowing… stuff… up.”

“Just concentrate on keeping this barrier intact for right now.” Pidge frantically typed on her wrist

“You’re... programming _now?_ ”

“Genius doesn't allow for plans.” She said sarcastically, “Look, I’m trying to get my mech to help.” The weight shifted a little and after a few more moments it was gone. “Okay, we have just under a minute before the whole thing collapses again. The mech can stabilize it, but we need to move. I know your barrier is about to collapse, and by the looks of it, so are you. Can you run?”

“Awww, you do care!”

“You’re fine. On three. One, two-”

The shield shattered on its own, pieces of the rubble raining down on them as Pidge grabbed Icebound by the hand and dragged him away as fast as she could. She had added micro-boosters to her boots and made full use of them, not slowing down until they were about a block away. They both collapsed against a wall of an empty storefront, looking back down at the fiery mess.

“You saved me?” Icebound gasped half in exhaustion, half in surprise.

“You did the same.” She panted back. 

“What is it with you and explosions lately?”

“Hey, nothing in that truck was supposed to blow _that_ badly! There was something else in there. Damn it. There’s another mech gone.”

“What-”

“Look, it’s late, the cops and emergency crews will be here soon and I’m beat. I’m going home.” 

With that, Pidge activated her microbooster and cloaking for her suit as the emergency vehicles passed, and headed home. A hot shower was all she wanted, and maybe some painkillers, her head was starting to throb. Worry streaked through her as she approached a dark house. Lance was supposed to be home by now. _Where is he?_ The baseball game let out almost two hours ago. When she had checked traffic to make sure the warehouse district would be empty, she learned that the home team got trounced and traffic was nonexistent at this point. _Calm down. He probably got caught up listening to Coran talk about baseball. He’s fine. Haxus hasn’t been around and Throk was at the warehouse._ Nonetheless, she boosted the speed on her boots and burst in through the front door. 

“Lance? Lance?” trying desperately to keep the fear out of her voice she uncloaked started darting through the house. As she passed the hall mirror she paused. Taking a deep breath, she made herself to think logically. She had to change. It would only terrify him if he saw Green Starling running around trying to find him. So first things first, shower and change. Pidge took the fastest shower possible and was dressed in under twenty minutes. She forced herself to check for injuries, noting how her side twinged when she washed her hair and feeling the lump on the back of her head. After close inspection, she found some scrapes on her arms, a few bruises in various places, minor burns on her hands and one nasty cut across her cheek. That would be hard to explain, but she didn’t care right now. Heading into the living room, relief almost knocked her over at the sight of Lance sprawled out on the couch. He looked completely worn out and about to pass out.

“Hey,” she said softly, “You look like I feel. Everything okay?”

"I haven't ached this badly since that building fell on me," he mumbled sleepily.

"A BUILDING fell on you??"

"Yeah, a few years ago. It was a pretty bad accident, but I made it out okay."

"What! What happened? How did you survive a BUILDING falling on you? It's not like you're some sort of superhero!"

Lance jerked upright at that and laughed nervously. "Yeah, you're right. That would be silly. I meant my niece's Lego building! I tripped over a box and crashed right into it! Complete disaster! She was so angry she dumped the rest of her Legos and blocks on me. I think I was bruised for a week! Hahaha... Well, I better get a shower." With that, he jumped up and ran to the bathroom.

Pidge stared after him and dragged her computer over to her. Pulling up the history of buildings falling in recent years led to lots of articles on her exploits and battles with Icebound. She winced a bit when she passed the article about Lance's apartment building. Going back another year gave her an article about a building that collapsed during a fire, that PhoenixFire and Arashi had taken care of. She had to go back two more years before she came across the article about the accident at her father's lab. Before that there was nothing notable, so she backtracked to the stories about the lab accident. Most of them she knew by heart and only skimmed the articles once again. She sat there puzzling over it as Lance walked back into the room, in his pajamas and hair still wet from the shower.

"You okay?"

She looked up, scrutinizing him, "Yeah. Are you sure you're okay?"

With a yawn and stretch, Lance nodded. "Yeah. You have to quit blowing stuff up.”

Pidge froze, “What?”

“The scratch on your cheek and burns? Did one of your robots blow up again? Or was it the soldering iron this time? You really need to be more careful. Some of that equipment is really delicate and we don’t need the house falling down because the basement blew up.”

“Oh, yeah, my- Lance! Did you get into a fight?”

Lance froze this time and began to look nervous again, “What? Wh-what makes you ask that?”

“Stay there.” Pidge returned a few moments later with her first aid kit. “I thought you said that your head wound was better! It’s split open more. This is going to sting.” Lance hissed as she dabbed the cut, “You really should get this checked out.” She took his hand, trying to ignore the warmth, and placed it over a wad of gauze and wrapped his head. “Don’t move, I’ll be right back” She came back with an ice pack wrapped in a washcloth, “Alright, put this over your eye. You’re going to have one hell of a shiner. What the hell happened at that game? I know people aren’t happy about how badly we lost, but damn, I didn’t think it caused fights!”

“Yeah! It sure did! You should see the other guy! There were a couple of drunks near where I was sitting. I tried to wait for the crowd to leave but ended up getting dragged into the fight. The cops broke it up and I had to stay and give a report. Thankfully they didn’t need much, I was pretty much only knocked over and I didn’t want to bother with charges. They were in more than enough trouble without it.”

Pidge sighed with relief and said softly, “So that’s where you were.” Lance glanced down, startled, but she cleared her throat, “Well, you’re going to look terrible tomorrow.”

He gave a short laugh, “You’re probably right, I'm off to bed. Don't stay up too late, we have the concert tomorrow." He yawned one more time as he turned around and began to leave.

Once she heard the bedroom door close, she picked her laptop and headed down to the lab. She pulled up the articles on Tenki Alchemy Center’s explosion and started to read over them again, paying closer attention to the details. The first several were pretty much the same story, with slight variations, which was to be expected from the major new sources. Pidge then moved on to the local news outlets. There were a few more details, but still nothing exciting. She finally moved on to the smaller news agencies, like the college paper. There was mention in one article of a possible survivor, but it remained unconfirmed. 

Pidge flipped back through the other articles but saw no mention of that. She went on to the next day’s news and found another mention of a young man who was found badly injured and it was speculated that he caught in the explosion, but again, nothing was confirmed. She followed the paper trail about this mysterious guy but still couldn’t find much. Eyes narrowing, she looked at accidents in the area around the same time. She found several car crashes, with no one matching the description of a ‘young man’. In frustration, she reached out to close the tab, but then stopped. There was a report of a missing person that caught her eye, but when she clicked on it, the story redirected to an updated article, saying that the person had been found alive, but the family was requesting privacy. That struck her as a bit odd, usually, there was a lot of information about missing persons, or at least the main article. This was almost like a death announcement. She looked up the family, but even that was a dead end. Trying to find the reporter was even more difficult, as he had switched jobs shortly after. She finally found some records in the police database about the missing person, but there were a lot of redacted and sealed parts. She was able to find the name of the hospital and began to sift through their files.

At first, it was even more frustrating; she had an idea of what to look for, but she hadn’t gotten very far. There were a few people that came in with bad burns that day, mostly firefighters, but nothing that sounded like they had been trapped inside the building when it blew. Actually, now that she thought about it, none of the things her dad had been using should have been that volatile, or at least not enough to blow up the entire lab like that.

Memories of her dad and Matt crept back into her mind. 

_“I just worry Dad. You are working with such unusual chemicals. What if something happens?”_

_Sam just smiled down at her, “It’s okay Katiebear. Nothing we are using should cause any problems.”_

_“SHOULD! See even you don’t know! I don’t like this. You know they have been involved in sketchy stuff for a while now. Why would they suddenly be interested in philanthropic works now?”_

_“Wow Pidge, way to go. Do you think we should pass up this opportunity? That’s pretty unsupportive of you. You know how much this means to Dad.”_

_“That’s not what I meant Matt! I just… Please be careful?”_

_Colleen came into the room and dropped a kiss on Pidge’s head. “Don’t worry sweetie, your father knows what he’s doing.” She turned to Matt and Sam, “Although I do expect you to stop long enough to give me some hugs.”_

_With a laugh, the guys jumped up and wrapped Pidge and Colleen in a big hug. Colleen smiled, “Don’t stay up too late boys. Come on sweetie, time for bed.”_

_Nothing really happened, until about two weeks before the explosion. The memory of her dad and Matt rushing around, exhausted and stressed, surfaced._

_“You guys should call it a night.”_

_“Can’t. We need to finish this. The CEO is stopping by to see what progress we’ve made.” Matt barely looked up from his typing._

_“We’re so close! If we can replicate the last experiment it would be historic! We could change things for the better.” Sam’s eyes shone at the prospect._

_Pidge only sighed as she put the dinner plates and some drinks down for them. “I just… I have a bad feeling about this.”_

_“Noted Katiebear. Now, go get some dinner for yourself. We’ll bring the plates up in a bit.”_

_Colleen called down, “I’m leaving in about five minutes if anyone wants last minute hugs.”_

_The rest of the family ran upstairs and piled into a group hug. Once they broke apart, Sam gave Colleen a kiss and said, “Have a good business trip. We’re going to miss you.”_

_She kissed his cheek, “It’s only for a week. It’s not like I’ll be gone forever.”_

_The next evening it was obvious there was a problem. “What happened? I thought you were able to replicate the experiment? Isn’t that good?”_

_“Not anymore. They want to use it for-“_

_“For things it wasn’t intended for. The less you know right now the better. You were right Katie and we should have listened. We’ve got some more work to do before we have to turn in the formulas and paperwork. I need to talk with Shiro as well. Katie, do me a favor, don’t look into this too much right now. Galra Corp is keeping a very close eye on everything. Just continue as you always have. It’ll be okay. I promise.”_

_But it hadn’t been. By the middle of the week, they were both extremely paranoid and would barely talk. Then the explosion happened. She knew they weren’t dead. Sam had far too many places to hide if something had gotten out of control there, be it a fire or chemical spill. They were hiding. Or taken, just like Colleen. She had found proof of that not long after the explosion. Pidge had snuck out that night and began to search the building, but the officer assigned to patrol the site caught her and turned her away. She managed to finally slip into the rubble a few days later and began her frantic search. The only thing she found was a piece of Matt’s lab coat with GC embroidered on it, a few crushed computers and a flash drive that had been rendered unreadable from the heat. She was able to remove a lockbox full of files, hidden in a corner of a closet. When she got it open later, there were patent notes and a few important family documents._

Shaking herself, she kept scrolling through the hospital records. Then, she found a promising file. A John Doe, found a day after the explosion by a reporter who had been at the site taking pictures for an article, was admitted with several broken bones and unconscious. It was the same day the missing person was reported. The missing person report was redacted and the only information was the basic description. _Hispanic male, 16-24, short dark brown hair, blue eyes, 5’8, 145lbs._

Nervously, Pidge typed in Lance’s name into a web search, only relieved to see nothing about him. She then tried the news site that had the missing person report. It started to load a page then redirected to the home page. Curious, she went back to the hospital records and tried it there. There were a few files, sealed and encrypted. She copied the files to a secure server, along with all the missing person files from the police station and began running a custom made decryption program. Stretching, she looked at the time and winced, it was after 1am already. She went upstairs to grab a snack as quietly as possible, then headed back down, just as the computer popped up the complete notice. Pidge closed her eyes, took a deep breath and sat down. The first file that was done was the missing person report and it only took half a second for her to recognize the face.

Lance was the survivor. He had been there that day. 

  


Lance’s family had died after hitting a patch of black ice about six months later.

  
She checked the medical records and found that Lance had been in the hospital recovering until almost a month before his family’s accident. He had been in a coma with most of his bones broken. He had been trapped under the rubble for almost two days and no one had expected him to make it. He woke up about two weeks later and needed lots of physical therapy after his bones healed. It was easier to keep him in the hospital because he was practically in a total body cast. He barely remembered anything. The only other notes were about how cold his room was all the time.

Pidge leaned back in shock. Icebound showed up after the accident. That meant that Lance was... Icebound? But that was crazy! Wasn’t it?

_“When you can have Icebound’s best friend?”_

_The ability to keep up with her banter and not being afraid._

_The punch he threw at Throk at the arcade._

_The heroics at the apartment fire._

_Icebound sweating trying to contain the apartment fire._

_Lance sweating after cooking over the stove for less than an hour._

_“You’d be in so much danger all the time”_

_The gushing head wound and the black eye. She remembered a chunk of rubble hitting Icebound’s face as the warehouse came down._

_The way he fought with Chillout’s moves._

_Those were Iceboud’s moves._

“No, no, this can’t be right! There’s got to be a better explanation!” Pidge jumped up and began rapidly pacing. “There has to be some mistake. Next battle, I’ll pay closer attention. There’s gotta be something I’m missing.” 

She stopped and stared at the picture of Lance on her screen before saving all the information in her secure backup drive and logging off. Her mind was going a mile a minute and the thought of sleep seemed laughable, but the exhaustion from the day began to rear its head and she dragged herself up the stairs to bed. 

The last thing that floated across her mind was something Lance said the other day. _I broke my arm when she first showed up a year ago. She seemed pretty happy to rub it in when she captured me._

She hadn’t broken _Lance’s_ arm, therefore, she wouldn’t have been able to rub that in when she captured _Lance_. 

She fell asleep to the memory of that fight. Icebound trying to block a flying car. Hearing a stomach turning crunch when it hit him had made her shiver. And _maybe_ she had mocked Icebound about it a little. She honestly thought it was his armor breaking. Not his arm. Once she realized he was actually hurt, she made sure to end the fight and played it as if he had won. By the end of the battle, he was shaking and deathly pale. She never wanted to seriously hurt anyone, let alone kill someone. Especially that early in her ‘career’. 

Pidge woke the next morning to a silent house. Normally there was the sound of coffee brewing, the rumble of the TV that Lance had forgotten to turn off or the hum of the dishwasher. She crept out of her room and psyched herself up to check on Lance. Opening the door a crack showed that he was still sound asleep, the alarm blaring on his phone unheeded. She slipped in and shut the alarm off noticing a few missed calls and texts from someone listed as _The Bossman._ She did a double take at the time. It was well past noon. Pidge slipped out of the room and after a quick search, found the number to the paper. She left a message on Coran’s voicemail simply saying that Lance was sick. She started some soup for lunch and within ten minutes Lance was barreling into the kitchen, tucking in his shirt as he grabbed the coffee she handed him.

“I’m so late! Coran’s gonna kill me!! I had to do an interview at ten and then the winter guard is recruiting this afternoon during the club fair. I promised Melissa I’d help with the auditions since she helped me study for my history midterm. I gotta-”

“Sit down and eat. I already left a message for Coran that you were sick. You took more of a beating than you let on and you need to rest.”

“What? I, I’m fine! See!” Lance yanked the bandage from his head before Pidge could stop him and she only sighed as blood began to run down his face. Shaking her head, she took a washcloth, pressed it to his head and dragged him to the bathroom. 

Pointing at the mirror she pulled the washcloth away and demanded, “Do you really think you should go out looking like that?” 

Lance stared at himself for a moment in shock, finally seeing how deep the cut on his head was and how purple the side of his face looked.

Pidge blinked as her heart clenched at the expression on his face. _If_ he _was_ Icebound, then she had done this to him. Without thinking about it she moved closer behind him and wrapped her arms around his chest, leaning her head against his back. “Please, just rest today. I won’t make you go to the doctor, but let me help. I can patch you up. Please?” For some reason everything was suddenly blurry. 

Lance turned around and returned the hug, saying quietly. “If it means that much to you, then I will.” She felt a gentle kiss on her head before he let go. “Ahm, I better get the soup before it boils over.”

They had a very relaxing day. At least Pidge made sure Lance did. She was wound tighter than piano wire, watching everything he did and listening closely to what he said. The more she looked the more obvious it became. _Lance was Icebound._

She shook her head and shoved it all to the back of her mind as they started a movie. Without realizing it they had both fallen asleep - Lance against her shoulder and she had been leaning against his side. A loud explosion made them both jump up causing them to stumble over each other. Lance was crouched in a defensive position as Pidge held a similar position facing the opposite direction, her back against Lance’s. Music suddenly swelled as the sound of fighting and more explosions went off.

They both looked at the TV and saw the final epic battle of the movie playing out. Lance began laughing and sat back down. Pidge only stared until a hysterical laugh bubbled out of her. Lance looked up in concern, then grabbed the remote and shut the TV off. Pidge continued to half laugh, half cry as he pulled her close again. 

“Shhhh. It’s alright. It’s just the movie. You’re safe. I’ve got you.” He whispered as he smoothed her hair down, rocking slightly.

Pidge took a few shuddering breaths and then looked up. Lance was staring at her intently, the concern on his face mirrored in his deep blue eyes. It was so mesmerizing that she didn’t notice how close he really was at first, until he blinked which broke the spell and she turned bright red, leaning back slightly.

“Thanks. I... I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. That explosion-”

“It’s okay. It’s unsettling to hear, even if it’s just in a movie.”

Pidge nodded silently, guilt once again sitting like lead in her stomach. If this was how people felt after one of her attacks, was it really worth it? She didn’t really care if the Galra were bothered by it, but regular people? It just made her feel worse about having terrorized the town. She resolved to only target the areas where the Galra had facilities were further away from the city. She caught Lance watching her so she cleared her throat. “How about dinner? Having an emotional breakdown always makes me hungry.”

He looked at her uncertainly, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’ll be fine. So about dinner?” 

Lance chuckled, “I don’t think either of us are in any condition to go anywhere. How about we make something simple? I think we have everything for sandwiches. We could have a picnic on the floor! I even have some chocolate peanut butter chip cookies for dessert.”

“That would be a good ending to this dinner date.” She smiled up at his surprised expression and bumped shoulders. “Isn’t that how it works? Movie, dinner and dessert?”

“I’m not sure I’d call this a date. I would do something so much better. More romantic too.” Lance stopped and blushed hard, “I mean if we… if you… would ever be interested in something like that."

Pidge gazed at him for a moment, getting lost in his brilliant, hopeful, blue eyes before saying quietly, “Yeah, I’d like that. I think I would like to go on a date.” 

That night Pidge lay in her bed staring at the ceiling, her mind a restless jumble. She had to find a way to get those files about Matt. It was her only clue, but that meant attacking the Galra again. Which meant Icebound showing up and risking another fight. If Lance _was_ Icebound, then the injuries would be obvious and she wasn’t sure she _could_ fight him. She couldn’t just give up on her family though. Iverson wasn’t going to help. Lance was trying but she wasn’t expecting much. If she hadn’t been able to track anything down yet, then she seriously doubted that a junior reporter would have much more luck. How could she get to the Galra? Maybe appealing to Lotor? She shuddered and quashed that thought immediately. The idea of pretending to be that vapid was only slightly less revolting than the memory of Lotor’s leering, smug, indulgent attitude. Pidge decided that fast hits and grabbing as much data as possible would be the best solution to the whole mess. The memory of Lance’s brilliant smile when she said she wanted to go on a date flashed across her mind, leaving warm happiness in her chest. The reality of how much she liked him wrapped comfortably around her as she finally drifted off.

  


Lance looked better the next day, but she insisted he rest one more day. He started to argue but she showed him how his forehead was still bleeding, although much slower. The bruise around his eye had taken on a yellowish tint around the lighter purple. She tried to ignore that, but it kept gnawing at her. With how bad that black eye had been, it should have taken at least a week to heal to this point. 

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore and threw on some clothes. “I’m stopping by the store for a few things. Do you want me to get you anything?”

Lance only smiled brilliantly at her from where he was sprawled on the couch, “Maybe some soda? Oh, and some more popcorn! We used the last of it yesterday.”

Pidge walked over, noting how he began to look nervous, and she leaned down so they were eye level while studying him for a moment. The realization of how much she liked him came spilling out before she could stop it. “I like you, Lance. All of you. I really do and I was serious about dating. I think we should give it a try. I’ll like you regardless of what happens.” She pressed a quick kiss on his forehead and then dashed out of the house before he could answer.

She wandered downtown and dropped a few envelopes in the mailbox. They were all fliers for the local carnival she had promised to help Lance mail, and a few of her microbots, addressed to different Galra Corp locations. Passing one of the buildings, she saw Lotor, Haxus, and Throk leaving. She went over to the ATM on the corner of the building and sent a microbot after them, listening as closely as she could, while pretending to withdraw some money.

“I know it was Green Starling that did it! We know she was at the warehouse and the only way she would know about that is if she hacked that particular system. All my work was destroyed! You need to do something, Lotor.” Haxus hissed.

“Yeah, she tried to kill me!” Throk added.

“Oh shut up you two. I only agreed to represent you because I had to. My agreement was _only_ for the criminal case. I personally don’t care if she wrecks the whole company, in fact, I would applaud it. It would be less work for me and quite frankly, I’m sick of dealing with all of you.”

“She’s a hacker and a menace! You need to press -”

  
“I need not do anything.” Lotor paused, glowering at the other two men, who took a step back in surprise. “You would do well to remember that I know far better than you what needs to be done. Now, good day to you.” Lotor climbed into a limousine and slammed the door shut. 

Throk and Haxus stood there for a moment before Throk asked. “What now?” 

“Now, we do what we need to.” Haxus turned and Pidge made a show of putting her cash into her pocket, turning her back slightly to them, as they walked by. She released another microbot as she hurried away, heart pounding.

Pidge forced herself to appear calm. She sent a text she hoped sounded casual to Lance asking about take out for dinner. He replied right away, so she kept the conversation light and going until she made it back. 

After they finished dinner, during which they somehow avoided talking about dating, Pidge practically ran down to the basement and loaded the video feed from the microbots. The first was of Lotor riding in the limo checking over some documents, then he got a phone call that left him extremely irritated. The bot crawled into his attache case, but he smashed it like a bug and it fell to the ground under the car as he got out. She was mildly disappointed but more interested in seeing what the other bots found. The feeds from the next four were of the various facilities, two were from the letters she sent earlier. She left those on time lapse in smaller windows. The last was of Throk and Haxus. The bot had scuttled up into the cuff of Throk’s uniform pants and peeked out enough to record everything.

“Whatta mean?” Throk looked confused.

“Don’t worry about it. Just be willing to lend muscle when I tell you.” Haxus snapped as he swiped his badge. They took the elevator up several levels and entered a large lab. “Maahox, any luck?” 

“No! That damned Starling took out the entire array as well as the back ups. I have some notes but she set us back at least a year!” Came the growled reply.

Haxus cursed, “We need to find out more about that guy Lance. Lotor won’t give me any information about him, but I _know_ he’s the key to this.”

A cold, female voice echoed across the room, high heels punctuating each word.“Calm yourselves. We will find the boy and you will get your revenge.” Haxus and Maahox straightened up and Throk practically snapped his heels together at her voice. The microbot was jarred loose and fell to the floor. Suddenly, a severe looking woman’s face, with light amber eyes, was peering into its lens. “It’s only a matter of time.” 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance laughs and has a really, really bad day. 
> 
> I have been waiting so long to share this chapter. I hope I did it justice.

_ “I think I’d like to go on a date.” _

The words ran through his head when he woke, when he showered, during breakfast, and as he sat at work twirling a pencil; the word document open on his computer remaining untouched.

“Are you working on the Founder’s Day Parade article?”

Lance sighed, calm delight filling his mind. “Yeah,” he answered dreamily.   


“Coran wants that on his desk today, you know.”

“It’ll be there,” Lance replied in his haze. He tapped the eraser on his keyboard. K. A. T. --

“... the press is under attack from the Green Starling.”

Lance hummed. I. E. “That’s nice.”   


“She’s got Katie hostage.”

Lance dropped his pencil. Blood rushed to his head as he stood in a flurry. He’d  _ promised _ to keep her safe!   


A hand with familiar fingerless gloves nabbed him by the arm. Warmth returned to his gut, quelling his icy powers - for now. There was no attack.

“What is going on with you?” Keith asked. “You’re acting even weirder than normal.”

Lance clenched his teeth and licked his parched lips. There was so much to it between his near breakthrough with Pidge and his relationship with Katie - how life was going  _ right _ for once. “You wouldn’t understand,” he settled with.   


He grabbed his thermos and walked past Keith to the drinking fountain, not caring that their shoulders collided.   


“What do you really want?” Lance asked with a growl when Keith doesn’t leave him alone to fill his mug.

“Is that Katie Holt you’re thinking about?”

Unprompted jealousy filled his chest as he spun to face his rival intern. “What do you know about Katie?” he demanded. He gasped before his peer could respond, memory returning to him. Pointing a finger at Keith, he said, “You like her! I saw you watching her at Cafe Altea that day!”

Keith grit his teeth. “I was making sure Lotor didn’t take advantage of you -  _ protecting _ you.” He sighed, frustration leaving his posture. “She’s been in the school paper - the Green Starling taking over her house was big news. I wrote the article.”

Lance bristled, something about the casualness in which Keith spoke of the incident rubbed him the wrong way. “Katie and I are going on  _ date _ , if you must know.”

He couldn’t always get a surprised reaction out of Keith, so Lance relished in this one, grinning smugly as Keith gaped. “Um... congratulations. You’re… you two are okay with that?”

“Of course we are!” Lance exclaimed. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

“Because…” Keith stops himself, steeling his gaze. “Nothing.”   


And he began to walk away.

Lance had the worst feeling that he was missing something very important. While he and Keith butted heads often, Lance begrudgingly acknowledged he wasn’t a bad person by any stretch of the imagination. “W-wait! What do you mean?”

“Forget it, Lance! Just…” Keith turns around, an odd look of... sympathy on his face. “Just be careful, okay? I’ve been doing some Galra Corp stories and there’s some weird stuff going on. Stay away from them if you don’t want to get burned.”

Keith disappeared into the break room, leaving Lance standing dumbstruck. “What the quiznak?”

_ “They have you all fooled!” _

~~~~~

All thoughts of Keith and their mysterious conversation was out of Lance’s mind by the time he left work that day. His heart thumped swiftly and there was nothing that could wipe the giddy smile off his face or quell the flutter in his chest - there was so much to do before tonight!   


Dinner would be candle-lit with spaghetti, meatballs, and garlic knots. Then an evening full of Killbot Melee and he’d tap it off with the biggest surprise of all; stargazing.   


There’s a beautiful high-end telescope in the closet of his bedroom, covered up with a sheet with dust on top of it. Lance doesn’t know when it was last used, but from the wear it looks as if it was well-loved. For weeks he’d been thinking about cleaning it off and putting it to use. It stirred up childhood dreams of becoming an astronaut. Using his powers to go fast was fun, but there was a nostalgic beauty to spacecraft; to pilot a machine to its full potential above the atmosphere and take in the majesty of space.   


Lance loved space. Katie’s eyes would light up whenever the stars wove into conversation. They could look at the details of the moon, make up their own constellations - talk about the great deeds of the heroes who they represented.   


He’d talk about the crafts and the missions; Katie would talk about orbits and black holes and the latest theory.

The genuine smile on her face and the light in her eyes… Lance could listen to her talk forever.   


And maybe, just maybe, if this worked out - and continued to work out, he dared to think - he would.   


_ Groceries first, loverboy. _

Basket in hand he made his way through the aisles. It was nice to see the place cleaned up so quickly after he and Pidge trashed it in their fight.   


He found the fresh oregano and garlic against the newly built wall. The scent of wood behind the mortar was still fresh. An unpleasant knot filled his stomach; he still hadn’t come to any definite conclusions over his newest power - it was almost if… as if he had a  _ berserk _ mode.   


Lance placed the items in his basket and walked away as quickly as he could. Later. He could worry about his own problems later. Katie came first today. What kind of boyfriend would he be if he couldn’t do that?

Grabbing ripe tomatoes on his way out of the produce section - because surely making the sauce from scratch would impress her, he’d have to thank Hunk for the recipe later - he strode over to the pasta aisle. Pausing with his hand over the traditional noodles, he spots the package further down - angel hair pasta.   


Lance grinned. That was far more romantic - he could think of at least ten flirtatious lines with simply the name of the pasta as a jumping point.   


Neatly and lovingly arranged bouquets were on display at the floral section. Lance selected a small one featuring a beautiful mix of a variety of flowers.   


Everything was going perfectly.   


~~~~~

There was a note waiting for him on the counter when he arrived home. He unloaded the ground beef from his bag as he read:

_ In and out for a school project. I’ve got laundry going - food at seven? Call my cell if I’m not upstairs by then. - Katie _

As if on cue, the washer beeps to signal it finished with the current load.   


Perfect. The only thing that could ruin this night would be a visit from Pidge. Worry passed quickly. He’d had pretty good luck with Pdge leaving the city alone when he and Katie did things together. As long as he didn’t say it out loud and jinx himself, he saw no reason why the trend wouldn’t continue.

He opened the linen closet and squatted, using a discriminant eye to look for the table cloths. Fingering through a stack of them, a white one colored with red flowers caught his eye. The petals are large and sweeping, as if someone took a paintbrush and simply took a few strokes. The flowers with thin green stems seem to float on the cloth, like they’re raining down on him - on Katie.   


This is the one.   


Lance unfurled the cloth and with a flourish he let it land delicately on the dining room table. He ran his hand along the surface quickly, doing his best to straighten out the creases.   


Maybe he should tell her tonight, about being Icebound. He really should. They were good friends, of that Lance was confident. She deserved him to be upfront with her and he trusted she would keep his secret.   


He paused mid-rub of a particularly infuriating fold. A sickening feeling began to churn in his stomach.

Yet… when the thought crossed his mind, when he imagined what she might say in response to his confession, he couldn’t help but see a more insidious smirk on her face. In his mind it's a good, reasonable idea - dating wasn’t a time to keep secrets - but his gut… his gut screamed not to say anything about it.   


But his heart was tickled with the idea of having someone to share his hero exploits with. He liked the idea of it being Katie. They already talked about everything else, why not this?

Really, it would be easier to coordinate the search for her family this way.   


He continued his preparations. Plates, silverware, candles, napkins - paper towels, but he folded them nicely - and then with great care, the small bouquet at the center, are all arranged neatly on the table.   


Lance stepped lightly; this was fun. The anticipation of seeing Katie’s face at his over-the-top display was just one more thing to look forward to.   


His heart pounded and his cheeks warmed as he worked. He was genuinely looking forward to tonight.   


The laundry beeped done again. Lance rolled his eyes. Katie must be really wrapped up in her project. He dug his phone out of his pocket and sent her a quick text:

_ Laundry’s done. You called it, you got it. (I promise the reward is worth it *wink emoji*) _

There was no need to start cooking for another hour or so, the food would get cold otherwise. Lance set the phone down on the counter. He grabbed the saucepan from the cabinets and the boiling pot for the noodles, setting them both near the stove.   


With all the materials he needed for cooking set out and ready, Lance moved on to what he hoped would be the perfect cap to the evening. If Katie was working so hard, she’d probably enjoy a nice bath. He’d prepare one for her, then let her soak away her worries before bed. She wouldn’t be able to refuse the gesture if the tub was already full with hot water and bubbles and scented candles.   


He couldn’t count the times he pined for a hot shower to ease his sore muscles - he missed hot water so much.   


Lance scrubbed and rinsed and scrubbed again before declaring the tub clean. He plugged in an air freshener and a beachy smell began to fill the air. The pink bottle full of bath bubble liquid was set on the lip of the tub, ready for later use.   


The living room got the full treatment - vacuuming, dusting, air freshener. He even polished the wooden end tables, giving the area a fresh pine scent.   


Lance stretched, arching his aching back. Just cooking was left.   


His phone flashed red from its spot on the counter. “What the…” It had never done that before that he could remember. Eyebrow raised, he paused his date preparation to investigate.   


It wasn’t coming from the screen. He had no messages of any kind, not even an acknowledgement from Katie of the text he sent to her (that was no surprise). He turned it around in his hands, searching, until he found the flash coming from the battery case.   


He flipped it open.

Immediately, a microbot scurried out of it - itself blinking red. Lance gasped and dropped the phone to the floor. His heart trembled with fear as he backed as far away from it as he could, eventually stopped by the back of the couch.   


The nanobot disappeared but Lance continued to shake. He slid down the back of the couch, giving in to weak knees.   


That was one of Pidge’s bots. He’d recognize the difference between her and Katie’s anywhere.   


Pidge really had been keeping tabs on him this whole time. Through his phone.   


A small part of him worried she  _ knew _ . Why hadn’t she acted on it? Up until now he had no idea about the phone and she’d  _ told him _ explicitly about monitoring the house. Surely she’d have said something, gloated, held his identity hostage over his head.   


Muscles relax and breathing became easier. Maybe she doesn’t know.

Maybe she does and was toying with him.

He couldn’t let her know that he knew that she was tracking him.   


Lance buried his face in his knees, letting out a frustrated groan. If he was going to make that breakthrough with Pidge he needed to do it soon. He was running out of time. Pidge was always one step ahead of him and soon… he wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop her, couldn’t do anything to protect others.   


He’d be a prisoner in his own mind, held hostage by her threats.

A problem for tomorrow’s Lance. Today’s Lance was saving the evening for Katie.   


It was time to look the part.   


With renewed determination, he stalked to his bedroom and threw open the closet door. His wardrobe had grown over the time he’d been here - but this created a new problem.

What should he wear?

Work clothes were out of the question. He wanted to feel like he could have fun. Lance removed the hanger of his Gameflux t-shirt. He smiled as quickly as he frowned as he put it back on the rack; Katie loved this one, but he wanted something a little nicer, something dressy-casual.   


Lance growled, teeth grinding. “Fine,” he said with a huff. “Compromise time. Saturday we are doing some  _ serious _ shopping.”

His dark jeans are worn, one of the few pieces of clothing left over from before the apartment fire. The collared blue sweater was almost _ too _ stark of a contrast, but Katie wouldn’t care what he wore. This was for him.   


Lance adjusted the collar, looking himself over in the body-length mirror. For the first time since his family passed away, he winked and flashed a flirtatious smile at himself. It felt good. It felt right.   


It felt like himself.   


“You’re going to kill it today, Lance,” he told mirror-him. “You finally found someone in town who can stand your dumb, gorgeous face.”   


He meant it, but deep down, something uncomfortable rested in his gut. Lance took a deep breath. The microbot had set him on edge. Everything was going to be fine.   


To top it off, he spotted himself with cheaper cologne than he liked. After he became a junior reporter the first thing he’d get for himself would be the brand he liked.   


The buzzer beeped on the washing machine. Hadn’t Katie taken her things out yet? Well, she  _ had _ said she was in and out.   


Tonight was for her. The least he could do was take care of laundry. It wasn’t like loading the dryer was hard.   


He trudged down the stairs, steps not as light as earlier. The pit of worry that Pidge knew his identity continued to eat away at him. With each stair, a sense of foreboding grew, as if he was walking into a trap.   


He walked past Katie’s workshop - the one she’d taken back from Pidge all those months ago. The chair he’d once been captive in was still there, but the laser and other villainous machines are gone. A shiver wound its way up his arms. Lance doesn’t mind the cold, but crossed his arms and rubbed them regardless. This chill felt different.   


The dryer was empty, the wash long done. Katie must be out.   


Lance sifted through the load, mostly Katie’s stuff, and threw it in the dryer. The mundane chore let him breathe, at ease with the familiarity.   


Until he grabbed _ it _ .   


Long and twisted tightly around the dispenser, it wasn’t a towel. Thick and dark he lifted it out, curious. It was longer than a towel, like a coat. Why would Katie need a coat in summer?

Green accents around the collar and cuffs made him freeze. He couldn’t breathe. 

_ “I hate Galra Corp for taking my family from me.” _

_ “Ms. Berry was right for yelling at you for those heroics.” _

_ “I know what it's like to be alone and no one deserves that. Even heroes.” _

_ “Well, say... hypothetically, if someone wanted to steal a bunch of chemicals, when would the best time this week to do it?” _

_ “Genius doesn’t allow for plans!” _

_ “I had a chance to find my brother today - you ruined it!” _

_ “I… have something to tell you, Lance. I haven’t been honest with you and you deserve to know.” _

Katie was washing Pidge’s coat.   


_ Katie’s _ coat.   


Dread filled him as he dropped to his knees, mind broken considering everything in a new light. Katie was  _ never  _ in danger.   


He… never really escaped that day.   


A door opened. Tears blurred his vision, but he knew there was no visible door there in the wall. It only made his heart shatter even more as Katie walked out of the hidden room wearing  _ Pidge’s _ goggles on her forehead.   


Her eyes grow the size of saucers. “Lance! What are you doing down here? I told you I’d get the laundry and --”   


She cut herself off when Lance stood and raised the coat to where she could see it.   


“Why?” he choked out. There was so much he wanted to ask, wanted to scream. He doesn’t trust himself to say anything more.   


He could see it now. The fear in her eyes when he destroyed the flash drive - he felt sick, he destroyed the key to finding her brother - it’s the same. All he could see now was Pidge’s expressions on Katie’s face.

Because they were the same person.

“I… I can explain, Lance,” she started. “I was going to tell you tonight, I swear.”

But he didn’t give her a chance, anger rose to a boiling point. Lance doesn’t care that it comes at odds with his ice powers, making him even more queasy, he’s mad and  _ terrified _ . He’s been living with his arch nemesis and  _ falling in love with her _ .   


“Is that why you wondered if we could have a proper date? So you could gloat?” The accusations come faster than he could think. “Was that part of the plan too? Get me to lower my guard first?”   


_ “I like all of you, Lance.” _

Because quiznak he had been  _ ready _ to do that.

Katie -  _ Pidge _ \- swallowed thickly. “No - not anymore. I --”

Lance let the coat drop to the floor. It lands with a heavy flop, cutting her off. “I  _ trusted  _ you,” he said, voice trembling.   


“I’m not going to hurt you,” Pidge said hastily.   


She took a step forward and he found himself taking a step back, tense. “You - you destroyed my apartment so that I  _ had _ to live here.” He took another step back, resting a shaky hand on a table;

“I didn’t know the lab was there. I just tried to... it wasn’t a meth lab, it was--” She took a deep breath. “Look, Lance, you’re  _ not _ in danger here. I promise.”

Something in his brain snaps. “How do I know you’re not lying like you have been this  _ entire time _ ?” he exploded. He clenched his fists, unable to look her way. “Was anything about…  _ us _ , real?”

“Of course it was!” she said quickly, stepping forward again. Lance couldn’t help it, despite her words he backpedels a few steps towards the stairs. “I like you a lot, Lance. I treasured every moment, from the day we went to the arcade to all the nights we just hang out and goof off. I’ve  _ never _ felt more like myself since my family disappeared.”

A tinge of empathy twisted in his heart, but the hurt was too overwhelming. “Even though you’ve been hiding who you are?” Lance accused like a hypocrite.   


His heart stopped as her eyes turned hard, glinting with danger - a familiar Pidge expression. “And see where that got me,” she said, gesturing around them. Her face softened. “Please, Lance, I’m so sorry. I just need a chance to explain.”

“Explain what you want from me?” he hissed. “I’ve been the  _ perfect _ captive for you.”

“You’re not,” she said firmly.   


Her words do nothing to calm him. “So you’d let me just walk out of here, take my things and go?”

Pidge sucked in a breath. Her eyes shone, as if his words actually hurt her. “That’s - that’s not the best idea,” she said. “You’re in legitimate danger - you’re a lot safer here.”

“Oh am I?” Lance spit. “With your death ray? What’s more dangerous than you threatening to kill me?”

“Haxus is after you! He’s been reporting to Galra Corp on your every movement!”   


Lance rolled his eyes. He couldn’t do this anymore. Looking at her, remembering all the good times they’ve had in this house - each one like a million painful pinpricks on his heart - he doesn’t want to remember. He took a few deep breaths before saying, “I’m leaving.”

Pidge jogged forward, arm out to reach for him. “Lance. I’m serious.”   


He turned and climbed the first few stairs.

“You promised you’d help me find my family!”

Lance stopped. He  _ had _ promised.

But that was before he knew she was Pidge. He couldn’t help her anymore.   


_ I’m sorry, Mama _ , he thought. He’d tried to listen, but this knowledge of betrayal, her long term plan...

A hand wraps around his forearm. “Please.”

Cool mist formed around his skin, concentrated where Pidge held him until she removed her hand. In its place, icy armor that quickly ran up his whole arm. He squeezed the banister with his other hand; why not reveal himself? It wasn’t as if it mattered anymore.   


“I’m sorry I destroyed the flash drive,” he said quietly. He owed her that much.

“I forgive you,” she said quickly - a little  _ too _ quickly, as if she’d already had time to think over it. “I should have done this a lot sooner. If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be this close and --”

A knot twists in his stomach as he turned to face her. A mournful tone escaped his lips. “How long have you known?”

“... Since after the supermarket fight,” she said. There’s no lie in her voice, he believed her despite all of this. “I should have told you. I’m sorry.”

“I…” Tears threatened to overwhelm him, his chest tight.

“Please don’t go,” she begged. “They’re looking for you - I think they _ know _ . They’re looking for everyone who survived the accident.”

“Then let them find me,” he blurted out angrily. “At least they haven’t lied to me.” His legs move him up the stairs. He doesn’t stop.   


“Lance, stop!”   


He doesn’t.   


“They  _ are _ lying to you! They aren’t after you for your benefit! Lance!”   


He opened the door to the ground level.   


“House! Initiate Protocol Six!”

Lance ran. He just wanted to sit down and cry. Instead, he shot ice shards into small drones that launch sticky webbing at his feet and all over his body. He shattered the large mechanical arms that attempted to restrain him. So much for being free to go.

Even when he managed to exit the house he kept running. He’d lost a home before, but this hurt a thousand times more than losing the apartment.   


He’d lost a friend. He’d trusted her and she’d used him. How badly he wanted to believe her apology. That’s what he’d wanted from Pidge wasn’t it? An apology and understanding? To work with her instead of against her? To bring out the good heart beneath?

_ “No matter what happens, I want you to know that.” _

But what she’d done to him hurt far more than any physical wound she’d ever inflicted upon him. He wasn’t ready to forgive yet. He wasn’t sure he could.   


Lance was unsure for how long he ran, or how far from the house he’d ended up. He only knew how tired he was as he collapsed into an alleyway. After regaining his strength he could go… somewhere… Ms. Berry had said he was welcome at her niece’s home. Perhaps he’d go there.

The air was the perfect temperature, which meant it was chilly for everyone else. A raindrop fell on his nose.

It was just one of those times the weather was going to reflect his mood. “Great, as if things couldn’t get any worse,” he groaned, sniffing deeply.

He wanted things to go back to the way they were; no powers, no super villains, his family still alive.

He missed his mom  _ so much _ .   


Something pricked him in the back of the neck, perking his senses. It was too big to be a bug. Lance reached around to grab it - and came away with a dart in his hand.

His heart leapt into his throat and he swallowed deeply, closing his eyes in despair. Had Pidge followed him so quickly? He slumped against the wall of the alleyway. Maybe that wasn’t so bad; she’d find him no matter where he went. He only wished he had more time to compose himself. He wasn’t ready to face her again so soon.

Sleep suddenly seemed like an amazing idea. His body doesn’t protest.

~~~~~

Unfamiliar machinery hummed loudly, consistently, rousing Lance to wake.   


The floor he lay on was comfortably cool, but could stand to use some cushioning. His eyes fluttered open to a curved grey ceiling - glass in his peripheral vision. Mind groggy, he groaned and flipped over to lay on his side. He faced a large window, floor to ceiling. He expected to see Pidge, dressed as Katie - resigned in his fear she’d show her villainous hand despite her earlier apologies.

On the other side - was  _ not _ Pidge’s lab.   


Lance scrambled to sit up, heart racing in panic. He was in some sort of containment, wide enough he could lay down and stretch his arms and legs.   


There was no discernible door.

Past the glass, a laboratory. Tables are full of scientific equipment he doesn’t recognize, but he knew the grey and magenta tinted walls - though he hadn’t seen them since…

Since the fateful day he was chosen to deliver lunch to an employee at Galra Corp. The day the lab exploded as he was just about to walk out the door. The day he got his powers.   


Why was he here?

The door to the lab opened. First to enter was Haxus, who threw him an evil grin before holding the door open respectfully for a scientist, followed by Sendak, the chief security officer.   


A sense of wrongness intensified in his gut.   


“Hey!” he yelled, standing and pounding a fist against the glass. “Let me out of here! I’m one of the good guys!”

The door slammed shut behind Sendak with a troubling sense of finality.   


The scientist approached, grabbing a tablet off a table and powering it up. “Mr. McClain, it’s good to finally meet you face to face. You’re a rather difficult man to find.”

She sounded more like a James Bond villain than the bright smiles and cheerful disposition Galra scientists were portrayed having on the television commercials.   


Confusion set in. “I don’t understand,” he said. “I’m not hiding --”

Bright lights turn on inside the chamber, glowing reds and oranges. The temperature rose and Lance dropped to the floor - they’re  _ heat lamps _ . It became hotter by the second and he couldn’t breathe --

“Subject is severely weakened to heat. Eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit brings him to his knees, ninety causes difficulty of breath,” the scientist said calmly. “Reducing temperature to sixty degrees.”

Lance collapsed as the heat lamps clicked off and blessedly cool mist rushed over his body.   


“I am Honerva,” the scientist told him. “I will be leading the study of how the Oriande serum has affected your body.”

_ “I think they know!” _

Lance rose to his hands and knees, mind still spinning from the expose to the heat - heat someone with his age and health should have been able to handle with no problem, but rendered him helpless.   


“I - I’ve done nothing but help you!” he cried. “I’ve tried to protect your buildings and employees!”

“And your help is very much appreciated,” Honerva told him coolly, not even bothering to look up from her tablet.   


Lance looked past her, where Haxus leaned against the door, a smug smile on his face - as if he were enjoying watching Lance suffer - and he probably was - and as if there was more of a show to come.   


“We have been searching very hard for your civilian identity,” Honerva continued. “Takashi Shirogane was the only employee known to be in the vicinity at the time of explosion, however, there are  _ three _ vigilantes running around the city with powers. You can imagine our perplexion.”

_ Flame Dude and Sky Guy _ , Lance realized quickly.  _ PhoenixFire and Arashi _ , their actual hero names flashed across his memory.  One of them was Shiro (no way he was Flame Dude, Shiro was too awesome to be annoying like that). This is why neither of them had helped him in defending the city. His stomach churned uncomfortably. They knew Galra Corp was after them - Shiro had  _ known _ they were in danger.

Why hadn’t they ever told him?

“We will find the other two in time. For now, it gives me the opportunity to focus on you.”

Lance hadn’t felt truly cold in ages, but her tone sent a chill down his spine.   


“I’m - I’m not a lab rat!” he protested. If that first test was any indication, the rats probably received  _ better  _ care.   


He’d have been better off with Pidge. Pidge who had tried to warn him - tried to  _ protect _ him - and he hadn’t been able to see past his broken heart and anger to consider the sincerity in her words.   


He’d screwed up big time and was paying the price.

Honerva smiled at him, unkindly. “Thanks to your convenient survival, I will eventually re-engineer the correct combination of chemicals that resulted in your reception of ice powers.”   


“Why are you doing this?” he asked desperately. None of this made sense! “I’ve never done anything to do guys!”

Haxus snorted gleefully from his spot by the wall. “Except for having a hero complex.”

“Silence,” Sendak growled, banging his gigantic metal arm against the wall. The sound reverberated throughout the room, the force making his prison wobble. Haxus stood at attention.

Honerva sighed, perturbed. “Your services in preventing Ms. Holt from discovering this place will be taken into account.” She stepped up to the glass wall, towering over Lance as his heart raced despite resting on the floor. She placed a palm gently on the glass. “Do not be afraid,” she told him. “Because of you, President Zarkon will soon have powers of his own.”

“Wait,” Lance said. He doesn’t like the picture this new information painted. He’s sick to his stomach. “Why does President Zarkon want superpowers? He’s  _ already  _ the richest person in the city.”

Honerva tched. “Not everyone can be bought with wealth, Mr. McClain. If President Zarkon is to rule the world, he must have the ability to act.”

Lance chuckled. This situation was far from funny, he knew that; he could very well die.   


Honerva frowned. “A curious response.” She keyed in the information to her tablet. “Hysteria may be a possible side effect of the current Oriande Serum.”

He snorted and doubled over in laughter.   


Sendak hit the chamber, sending it rocking. “What’s so funny, brat?”

Lance laughed, eyes full of tears. “You guys,” he said, “are  _ hilarious _ .”

The way they looked at each other in confusion made it even funnier.   


“Here I thought you were the good guys,” Lance explained through his laughter. “And I thought Pidge was the bad guy, but it's the  _ opposite _ ,” he howled, crossing his arms pointing left with his right hand and right with his left.   


“I got totally duped,” he threw his hands in the air, “and now it’s like a legit superhero movie and I am in  _ serious _ trouble.”

He couldn’t stop laughing. This kind of stuff only happened in fiction and here he was smack dab in the middle of a conspiracy and he was  _ definitely _ going to die if he couldn’t escape.   


Honerva let loose a deep sigh. “Sendak, begin the extraction procedure. I want a sample to work with before I run more tests on the boy.”

“Of course.”

A split second later Lance was hit with a prick that felt an awful lot like the tranquilizer earlier.   


Tears of laughter turned into tears of sorrow. Pidge had been right; she’d changed without him realizing and he shut her out of his life because he let fear and anger consume him.

No one was coming for him. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A final battle and a few surprises, leave everyone with far more hope than they ever wished for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I hope you enjoy the final chapter. I've been dying to get this chapter up. I've had the final battle playing out like a movie in my head since we first came up with the concept. I can't wait to see what everyone thinks.
> 
> This has been an absolute labor of love for [Rueitae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rueitae/pseuds/Rueitae) and I over the past ten months. We started this well before the Mini Bang began and then realized that it would be the best time to post.
> 
> I've never worked with a better collaborator.
> 
> Once again an enormous thank you to our beta [DoughnutsForever](https://whyamistillhungry.tumblr.com/)! You have been wonderful to work with and gave so many fantastic insights.
> 
> Please check out this fantastic *movie poster* inspired art that was made for this by [Scarlet Soul](https://mybluelionlancylance.tumblr.com/post/186452499757/this-is-art-for-the-plance-mini-bang/)! We are so grateful for your work, it's utterly gorgeous
> 
> Finally a huge thank you to our readers. We have seen the comments so far and appreciate each one!

Pidge stared for a moment as Lance dodged all of her attempts to keep him in the house. She followed him out the door, tears streaming down her face. He was already too far away to hear her, not that he would bother turning around even if he did. Her legs gave out as she slumped to the ground and tried to ignore the tears that fell. She had really messed up. She should have told him sooner. He reacted just as badly as she had feared. She had held onto the hope that things would turn out differently and that hope had crushed her. She really should have known better. This whole thing was ridiculous. What person in their right mind would think that a supervillain and a superhero could be in any sort of relationship, let alone a happy one? Pidge dragged herself into the house and collapsed at the breakfast bar, head buried in her arms, as she finally let out all the tears, anger at the Galra and sadness she had been bottling up. 

She cried for her family. For not being able to find them. For the lost possibilities with Lance. For all the wasted time fighting him. For all the misunderstandings. For destroying so much. For not being able to protect him. 

_For not protecting him._ That snapped her back to reality and reminded her what was on the line. This was no time for a broken heart. Lance was in real danger and she was determined to protect him, even if it was from the shadows.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Pidge got up and marched down to her lab. She pulled up the tracking program that the microbot had been updating earlier. It gave her his precise location based on not only GPS but cell towers, WIFI and Bluetooth, with her own protocols installed to quadruple the accuracy. She found him quickly, noting that he was heading to the opposite side of town. Debating for half a second, she decided that she’d make better time as Green Starling. After throwing on the last few pieces of gear, she picked up the coat from where Lance had dropped it and put it in on with an air of finality. She was going to him as her complete self and seeing if he would accept it. Even if he rejected her again, she wouldn’t hide who she was anymore. 

Pidge activated her cloaking field and the micro boosters on her boots, making a beeline for where Lance was. Checking the map occasionally, she saw that she was gaining on him. She slid to a stop across the street from where the signal was coming from. Horrified, she watched as Lance removed a dart from his neck and then slumped over, unconscious. Before she could move, a dark sedan pulled up. She could see Haxus in the driver’s seat and Throk climbed out. He grabbed Lance roughly and shoved him unceremoniously into the back seat, not caring that his head smashed into the door or that he tumbled bonelessly onto the floor of the car. 

What more did the Galra want? They had her family. They had made Lance into an unwitting superhero and taken his family from him. 

Scrambling, she sent her fastest tracker bot to latch onto the car as it zoomed off through the building rush hour traffic. She wouldn’t be able to easily follow them like this. The sound of Lance’s ringtone pulled her attention from the escaping car and compounded the feeling of dread. She skittered across the street and found his phone laying in the alleyway. The number on the screen read _Mullet Man-Work_. Realizing this was her best chance to get someone to call the police or any help at all, she answered the call.

“Took you long enough. Look I need you to cover- Hello? Hello?” came the irritated voice.

Taking a deep breath she answered, “You work with Lance right?”

The atmosphere shifted immediately to unrestrained hostility, “What have you done to him?”

“No! Not me! It’s the Galra!” she said quickly, hoping to deter too many questions that they didn’t have time for. “Throk and Haxus just knocked him out and dragged him away! I need you to call the police. There should be some surveillance video of the street. Look, I know it’s not long enough for him to be missing, but I’m positive they’re going to do horrible things to him! He’s in a great deal of danger and I shouldn’t have let him leave. I should have- Look... just tell - tell Iverson…” 

She gulped a little trying to keep her hysteria in check. 

“I know what to do Pidge,” he said simply. “Keep track of him and backup will be there soon. Don’t go rushing in. We’ll get him back.” The line went dead before she fully registered what had been said to her. When it did, it stopped her short. She hadn’t even given him any specifics. How was he supposed to know where to go?

How did he know who she was?

Choosing to ignore what the stranger had said, she pocketed his phone and began following the signal from the car, praying that they hadn’t found the bot. The traffic was enough to make her want to scream, but she hadn’t had a chance to finish another mech. The sidewalk was slightly less congested but she still had to be careful about weaving between people. Occasionally she would jar a jerk who was being obnoxious or blocking the path on purpose and heard a few fights break out. It gave her a small rush of glee which was quickly quashed by her concern for Lance. 

After an hour of struggling through the crush of people, she finally made it to where the tracking signal was coming from. Galra Corp International headquarters. Of course. _This is really starting to feel like a stupid superhero movie._ Following the signal a little further, she found the car in the parking garage. Empty of course. She recalled the microbot, trying to figure out what her plan of attack should be. Taking a deep breath she sat down beside the car and watched the log from the microbot. 

Throk had manhandled Lance out of the car, once again hitting his head on the door.

“Are you going to help me or not with this?” Throk grumbled to Haxus, who merely shrugged.

“Looks like you’re doing fine to me. I don’t really care what happens to him. Boss said to bring him in alive and in one piece and didn’t specify what he needed to be unharmed.” 

Throk half dragged Lance across the floor to what looked like a private elevator, then tossed him in when the door opened. Haxus frowned slightly. “That doesn’t mean go too overboard. We don’t know how long this will keep him out and you tossing him around may wake him.”

The doors slid closed before Throk’s answer could be heard. 

White hot rage coursed through Pidge’s veins. They were going to pay for this. She was going to make damned sure of it and to hell with waiting for any supposed backup. If they wanted to deal with the villain Green Starling, then she was more than happy to oblige at this point. She knew what Galra Corp was capable of and that meant Lance didn’t have much time. She wasn’t about to lose someone else she cared for to them.

Playing back the video loop, she entered the code for the elevator, only to have it open and Throk step out. Her hand shot out and grabbed his arm, the taser like electrodes on her gloves activated, causing Throk to stiffen as the shock coursed through him.

“Where is he?” 

Throk’s eyes darted around in fear. The dangerously furious voice was coming from his right side, but nothing was there. Another shock caused all his muscles to contract in a wave again. He was able to stay standing but Pidge knew that it was extremely painful. 

Throk finally gasped out, “Twenty... fifth... floor. You won’t make it though. They’ve already started.”

Pidge felt the color drain from her face, “Started what?” she demanded as she sent another pulse of electricity through him. But Throk pressed his lips together smugly and tried to look in her direction. Not caring anymore, she sent a large pulse through him and stepped into the elevator as she let go of Throk’s arm, watching coldly as he crumpled to the ground.

She watched the numbers count up impassively, the blaster and a few electro bombs she carried weighing on her belt. A few of the nanobots were already scurrying into the circuits, finding their way into deeper systems, dropping viruses and corrupting what they could. As the door slid open at the 25th floor, Pidge had pressed her back against the panel across from the buttons and watched in the mirrored back as the lab was revealed, the gray and magenta walls making it difficult to see very far. She was able to see a small crowd around a large glass containment area, bright lights shining down. Keeping low, she skirted the edge of the first workbench and peeked further into the lab. 

Pidge saw Haxus typing furiously at a computer station close to the containment area muttering to another scientist. “Look Maahox, this note _clearly_ says that it should be a 4:2 ratio of Drule to Taujeer.”

“That’s insane! Adding that mixture to the Zaul would cause a massive explosion!” 

Pidge slid closer to the workstation and noted that the paperwork they were trying to decipher had several food and water stains on it. With a smirk, she moved closer to the glass room, but her view was obscured by some people.

A large, burly man with an imposing prosthetic arm stood with his arms folded across his chest, glaring at everyone as a slender woman with a severe face made notes.

“Subject shows signs of heatstroke at ninety five degrees within fifteen minutes, including rapid pulse, dry skin, absence of sweat and the beginnings of delirium. Lowering temperature to sixty degrees.” After a few moments of watching the monitors, she continued, “Heart rate and body temperature are falling within acceptable limits.” 

The guard’s intercom chirped, “What do you want?” Pidge could hear the rushed apologies and the mention of Throk missing his shift. “Then find out where he is! We can’t risk any interference right now.”

Without looking up the woman asked cooly, “Is there a problem Sendak?”

“No. Not at all Honerva! Just some idiot guard that will be out of a job shortly.” 

With a sharp nod, she began to move to another workstation, “Very well. See that there are no interruptions. I want to finish my experiments before we send our invitations to the guests of honor.” 

Sendak chuckled as he moved to the elevator. The doors slid open and another guard appeared. Sendak frowned, “What is it Kolivan? 

Kolivan hesitated for a second then said, “We found Throk unconscious in the parking garage. He’s on the way to the hospital now.”

“Tch. He always was an idiot. Probably had too much to drink before his shift again.” Sendak sneered. 

Pidge had stopped listening from the moment Sendak and Honerva had moved away from the containment room. A small growl escaped just as Kolvian entered. She had been expecting an animal or a simulation. Not to find _him_ there. Lance was bound to a chair in the center of a tiny room. His shirt had been ripped off and bruises mottled his skin. The head wound had reopened and was bleeding sluggishly but heavily, under skin that looked almost sunburned. Her eyes darted up and saw the heat lamps on the ceiling, which she had mistaken for brighter track lighting.

_Subject shows signs of heatstroke_

Pidge saw red. Sure, she had beaten up on Icebound, but he honestly thought he was doing the right thing. Experimentation? All well and good for proving scientific theories. This? This was torture. They knew they were hurting him. 

In a complete rage, Pidge charged her taser gloves and slammed them into the control panel near the containment unit. It sparked as she sent a minibot in to make sure the cooling system was still working and turned it up. The others started scrambling to get to the containment system working. Pidge charged her gloves again threw a punch at Honvera, not realizing her cloaking shield had shorted out. 

Honerva twisted out of reach and tried to grab her, as she screamed in rage. “You have no right to try to disrupt my experiments!” 

“And you have no right to use people like this! You’ve almost killed him!” Pidge snapped back as she dodged out of the way and ended up on the far side of Lance’s prison.

Haxus laughed as he ran toward Pidge, “He deserves worse! He’s been a thorn in our side far too long. I can’t wait to dissect him once Honerva is done with him.” 

Pidge grabbed an electro bomb and threw it full force into Haxus, not caring about the bloodcurdling screams he was letting out as he fell against his workstation. 

She began pounding on the glass of the containment unit, “Wake up! Wake up! Don’t you die on me you stupid popsicle!” Lance barely moved and she frantically typed a few more commands for her microbot, and soon the glass became cold as the temperature dropped. 

Pidge threw several more electro bombs, shorting out the rest of the equipment and knocking Maahox out. She noticed that Kolivan was doing his best to impede Sendak. Which just left her to deal with Honerva. Pidge turned as she heard another shout of rage and got knocked back by a surprisingly strong hit from Honerva. “How _dare_ you try to ruin everything! I will not allow it!” Pidge charged her gloves and swung at Honerva, surprised that she barely made contact. Honerva grabbed the desk next to her to help keep her steady from the shock. It took Pidge a moment to realize her feet were barely touching the ground and then she felt the grip on the back of her neck.

“You have been an annoying pest in our midst for far too long. I believe it is time to rid your lab of this vermin.” Pidge stiffened as Sendak’s unmistakable voice rang in her ears. Frantically, she looked over to see Kolivan crumpled on the floor and Lance was still out of it. Hastily, she tried to put a plan together but as Sendak’s grip tightened around her neck, she realized she was running out of time. 

Honverva straightened up and nodded regally. “That would be for the best. We were hoping to use her as leverage, or perhaps a test subject, but she is far too much trouble.”

Pidge tried to charge her gloves but Sendak yanked them off as she desperately to twist out of his grip, only to have it tighten more. “Then it looks like we have no use for you anymore.” With that, she was thrown with a bone crunching thud against the thick glass of Lance’s containment unit. She let out a scream that turned into a squeak as she fell to the floor. Before she could move, Sendak scooped her up around the neck so he faced her this time, a menacing smile on his face. Then his gaze moved past her. “So rattling your cage has woken you up? Just in time to watch us crush this bug.”

Honerva sounded gleeful, “He survived? Good. Good. The results are far too important to stop now. I almost have all the data I need. It will be intriguing to see how this will affect him.” 

Pidge’s heart sank as the monitors from the containment unit began to beep and the low hum of power began. She thought she had shorted the system out and destroyed the cables connecting the power to the cell. It was only a matter of time before the experiments started again and there was nothing she could do to stop them. “Stop.” she gasped out, “Stop hurting him.”

Sendak only laughed at her. “Why does it matter to you? You’ve tried to kill him more than we have. You are nothing to anyone and he’ll thank us for getting rid of you.” Then he pulled her a bit closer, “Don’t worry. You’ll be joining your family soon enough.” Pidge’s eyes widened as tears began to fall. There was a pounding in her head that drowned out everything out, except muffled screaming. 

She was pretty sure it was her until Honvera cackled with glee. “Fantastic! Subject’s heart rate was forty three beats per minute. Now heart rate is at one hundred twenty beats per minute!”

Pidge could almost make out Lance screaming and pounding on the glass. She didn’t know what he was saying, but it was obvious that his pleas were only amusing their captors. Sendak squeezed her tighter and gave her a violent shake as she weakly struggled. The world began to grey out when suddenly a blast of freezing air knocked her loose from Sendak’s grip. 

As she fell she fell she tried to brace for the impact of hitting the floor. As if in slow motion, she saw Sendak fly into the main power supply and flail around before falling limp. Then she was ice cold, which jolted her into taking a deep breath. Blinking to help clear her vision, she looked up to see an absolutely enraged Icebound. He put her down slowly and turned to face Honerva. Pidge noted that his armor was thicker than she had ever seen it and he no longer looked like he had just been tortured. 

“There’s no escape for you!” Honerva screeched as a flood of guards entered. “I will discover all of your secrets, even if I have to kill you first!”

Pidge struggled to her feet, ribs shifting uncomfortably, but determined to stop Honerva. She surveyed the room and was astonished at the damage. The whole room was coated in ice, workstations smashed and the containment chamber was completely shattered. 

Icebound said, without looking at her, “It looks like we need to use some of those battle tactics from Rolo’s.” He handed her the gloves that Sendak had taken.

She smiled as she slipped them on, lowered her goggles and unholstered her blaster. “Think you can keep up?” 

They stood back to back and as soon another guard entered, they attacked in synchronization. Pidge blasted several guards and saw Icebound fending off several more. She caught sight of Honerva loading a gun and fired a blast in that direction. Icebound noticed and threw several ice shards at her as well. Honerva took a hit to the shoulder and one across the side, as she finally collapsed.  
  
The guards tried to surround them, but they kept battling moving closer to the window. 

“This was the stupidest idea you ever had. You should have just stayed at home.” Icebound sent an explosion of ice shards at the guards.  
  
Pidge threw an electro bomb near the entrance, “Excuse me? If I hadn’t gotten here you would have been toast. Literally.” 

“I had things under control!”

She snorted, “Sure you did. You had it as ‘under control’ as if you were in the middle of a wildfire.”

Ice crystallized around several of the guards' blasters causing them to crack as Icebound said, “Yeah, well good thing ice is just frozen water.” He paused, frowning. “You should have told me sooner and not try to trap me in the house.”

Annoyed, Pidge blasted several of the computers causing them to explode near a cluster of guards, “Don’t act like this is all my fault, you’re the one who couldn’t mind your own business and had to mess with the laundry. Cool move with that frozen vortex bomb.”

The crush of guards began to close in on them and Pidge wasn’t sure how much longer they could hold out. To her horror, Sendak and Haxus stood up unsteadily. She heard Icebound let out a soft curse, signaling he saw it too. 

“This ends now!” Sendak roared, “I will make you pay for what you have done!”

He unholstered the largest blaster Pidge had ever seen, absently registering that the blast would easily hit both of them. She continued to fight but softly said, “I’m sorry you got dragged into all this, Lance. I want you to know… I was serious about everything. I really like you and I was hoping beyond anything that we could work.”

Icebound looked at her over his shoulder, “I know. If this is the way I finally go, then at least it’s with someone who cares by my side.”

With a nod, unknowingly, they both prepared the largest attacks they had. If this was the end, they would take everyone out with them with all they had. Sendak’s blaster began to glow an ominous violet as it charged. 

The large glass window facing the city unexpectedly blew out, a rush of hurricane strength air rushing in, along with a figure clad in silver and another encased in flames. 

Haxus screeched with delight, “I knew it! I knew Icebound was the key to draw out Arashi and PhoenixFire! Capture them all!”

Arashi caused another gust of wind to pin most of the guards surrounding them to the wall.

PhoenixFire looked at Haxus with contempt, “Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Icebound, toss an iceblast at this guy.”

“Like I haven’t been this whole time! Stupid flame brain. Fine.” Icebound directed a beam of ice at Haxus as PhoneixFire encased it in flames. The combination didn’t cancel out, it caused a stream of frozen fire, so cold that it burned through the air and exploded right behind Haxus. Sendak and Haxus were thrown across the room, then the unmistakable hiss of gas echoed through the room.

“We need to leave, now!” Arashi yelled from outside the window.

“How are we going to get out of here?” Icebound looked around in bewilderment.

PhoenixFire shoved Icebound out the window and grabbed Pidge’s hand, “Like this.”

Pidge screamed as she was dragged out the window, then realized she wasn’t falling. Arashi had created an air bubble and was floating them down to the ground. He looked at her surprise and sighed, “We told you to wait for backup and not go rushing in.”

“How was I supposed to know _you_ were the backup? I was just told that backup was coming and he was in too much danger to wait! If I had waited for you guys, he’d be dead right now!” Pidge yelled, her voice breaking at how true that had almost been.

A huge explosion rocked the area. The Galra Corp building was roaring as fire consumed it. Arashi sped their decent as the others gaped. The fire was hotter than anything Pidge had ever experienced, and she had experienced quite a bit of that over the past few days. PhoenixFire grabbed Icebound’s arm as he tried to spray ice on it. 

“Don’t bother. This fire isn’t going to be contained easily. It smells like… Drule?”

The others paled as Pidge blurted out, “Haxus and Maahox were working with Drule, Taujeer, and Zaul. If those idiots had all of them in the lab…”

Arashi landed them near an alley, dispersed the bubble and motioned for them to follow him. Pidge took off her goggles and stuffed her gloves into her pocket, moving carefully. Icebound picked her up as she let out a squeak.

“You don’t have to do that!”

With a shrug, he continued to follow the other heroes. “You’re hurt. I heard that crack when Sendak threw you against the glass. I’d be surprised if you didn’t have at least one broken rib.”

PhoenixFire surprised them by stopping at a nondescript car, dropping his powers and climbing in. Arashi smiled at them, “Hurry up you two, we have a lot to talk about.” He let his powers recede as turned his back and climbed in. 

Icebound opened the back door and put Pidge in gently, before allowing his powers to drop as he climbed in on the other side.

The ride was silent as they wound around the city, finally heading over some train tracks to the outskirts where empty fields lay. Lance cleared his throat nervously, “You sure you know where you’re going?”

“We’re taking the scenic route.” PhoenixFire snarked at him.

“No duh, fire face. Why?”

“We’re almost there. We just wanted to be sure no one followed us.” Arashi sounded tired and very familiar.

They pulled up to a modest looking house closer to the suburbs. Pidge was impressed, they weren’t kidding about wanting to make sure no one followed them. Lance came around and helped her out of the car. She could see that his movements were just as slow and careful as hers. That meant he was either still hurt or had gotten hurt worse during the fight. PhoenixFire and Arashi let them into the house first. 

“Go sit down before you fall down. I’ll be right back with the first aid kit.” PhoenixFire darted into a back room.

Lance and Pidge flopped down. “I never want to move again.” Lance moaned.

“That should be your catchphrase, Lance. I swear, I’ve heard that so many times this week I _almost_ feel bad for you.” came PhoenixFire’s reply.

“Shut up! You have no idea what I’ve been through Mullet! Besides it’s not like you-”

Pidge cracked an eye, ready to continue the teasing until she saw Lance’s face, eyes open in shock. She sat up quickly as things began to fall into place.

_I’m only terrible to Keith and Pidge._

_Mullet Man-Work_

PheonixFire was Keith. Lance’s coworker. Which meant he had been at the lab that day. 

Keith walked back into the room with a first aid kit that dwarfed hers, a smirk on his face at Lance’s expression. “I want to take a picture of that ridiculous expression because it’s so funny but you look like you guys need some patching up.” Keith sat down on the table in front of them. “Let me see your head. That wound is bleeding pretty badly.”

Lance jerked back, as Keith scowled at him, but Lance gestured to Pidge, “She took a really bad hit. I think she may have some broken ribs.”

Keith’s expression became thoughtful before he nodded, “Ka-Pidge. Can I look at your ribs or would you rather Lance do it?”

Pidge narrowed her eyes, “You know my name. Who are you? You were at the lab that day. How were you there?”

Keith held up his hands in surrender as Arashi’s voice said, “He was there visiting me.”

Pidge jumped up, ignoring the pain and whirled around only to stop short. Shiro. Shiro was alive? He smiled gently at her. “Sit down Katie, you’re hurt. If you let us check over both of you, I’ll explain.”

Pidge sat back down, not quite noticing that Lance had taken her hand. As Keith checked over and treated what injuries he could, Shiro explained everything.

He had been at the lab that day and Keith had come to get him for lunch. Lance had come in to drop off the order for the rest of the lab. Haxus had been throwing a fit about not having more access to the Oriande Serum formula and stormed out. Matt and Sam had been on edge all week and wouldn’t really explain what was going on, other than the Galra couldn’t be trusted anymore. Shiro found out later that there had been a flood of guards who stampeded in and dragged them out of the back of the lab. It looked like Matt had set off the reaction by knocking over a bunch of chemicals and Sam had been typing furiously as the guards entered with a smug Haxus. Since Shiro and Keith had been closer to the exit in the front lab, they had been knocked back and were able to leave shortly after. Lance had been trapped and gotten the brunt of the blast since he had been right by the door to the back of the lab. Lance’s powers seemed to be stronger than theirs too. When Keith saw the missing person article he tipped Coran off. Coran had been investigating Galra Corp for several years. 

“Then what happened to Matt and Dad? Or Mom?” Pidge whispered.

Shiro handed her a file, “As far as I know they are fine. I’ve been working with Coran and undercover at Galra Corp since the accident. I had been there less than a year, so no one really paid me much attention and no one knew about Keith. We’ve been laying low trying to find out as much as possible.”

Pidge looked up in disbelief. “They’re okay? Where are they? What exactly were they working on?” 

Shiro only shook his head, “I’m not certain. Your dad gave me several hard drives and made me swear to keep them safe, earlier in the week . He said if anything happened to play stupid and keep an eye on you. He said everything you need is in the drives. I planned on only waiting until the chaos of the explosion settled down, then the hacker Pidge Gunderson started poking around. Not long after that Green Starling showed up. Then suddenly there was Icebound. The few times I tried to get in touch with you, the Galra would be close to finding out about Icebound’s true identity, tracking down more about Keith and I, or getting ready to strike back at Green Startling. I misdirected where I could but keeping a low profile was the most important thing. I’m sorry I couldn’t get this to you sooner.”

Lance said, “So that’s why you two were like Daredevil.” At the confused looks, Lance rolled his eyes, “Daredevil doesn’t really leave his section of the city and is fierce about protecting his identity. Are my powers really stronger than yours?”

Keith shrugged, “We haven’t really tested our abilities all the way. Besides, you seemed to be doing fine protecting the city. It left me more time for work and classes, so I didn’t really care.” 

Lance was about to retort when he saw Pidge’s face. She was staring at the file, eyes watering and then looking back at Shiro. Lance took her hand and squeezed it. 

Pidge turned to him and said shakily, “I finally have a way to find my family. I can save them.”

Lance squeezed her hand gently, “Not you. _We_.”

Pidge’s eyes widen at his smile and she stared at him, “Do you mean it?”

Lance returned the gaze, “If you meant what you said-” 

Pidge leaned over, wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him close and said softly. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. I was so scared of losing you too.” 

She leaned in the rest of the way and gave him a gentle kiss. Lance returned it enthusiastically and when they parted he gazed deep into her eyes saying, “I swear, we will find your family. You don’t have to do this alone anymore.

Hearing murmurs of agreement, Pidge looked up to see Shiro and Keith nodding. For what felt like the hundredth time that day, she cried. Although this time she as she buried her face into Lance’s neck, they were tears of hope. She felt loved, safe and most importantly, no longer alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Find Rueitae on [Tumblr](https://rueitae.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Find Nightshade on [Tumblr](https://fallen-angel-nightshade.tumblr.com/)


End file.
